Ben Affleck becomes a surrogate Uncle in George Clooney's latest directorial film, "The Tender Bar."
By: Christopher James
Can two movie stars squander each other’s talent? George Clooney directs Ben Affleck in Amazon Prime’s latest movie, The Tender Bar, a navel-gazing tale that takes every cheap shot possible to drum up emotion. Lucky for it, cheap shots can still be effective. Parents around the world will be charmed by the ‘70s set, decades spanning family drama. After all, Ben Affleck and director George Clooney are front and center in the movie’s marketing. Though effective in fits and starts, the wistful sentimentality curdles with time.
Once they run out of money, single mother Dorothy Moehringer (Lily Rabe) returns to her Long Island home with her tail between her legs and her son, J.R. (Daniel Ranieri), in tow...
The narration and framing device from an older J.R. (Tye Sheridan) make it clear, young J.R. was very happy about this move for one key reason. It meant spending more time with his beloved Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck). Don’t read too much into the name, this is not a Shadow of a Doubt/Stoker situation. Uncle Charlie owns the local bar filled with a host of colorful characters, all more drunken and cuddly than the last. Always told “his Father was on the radio,” J.R. had always looked to have some sort of Father-figure and Uncle Charlie fits the bill perfectly.
It's hard not to fall in love with Ben Affleck's Uncle Charlie.
2021 may be marked as the year of Ben Affleck. Not only has he dominated tabloids with the return of Bennifer, but The Tender Bar marks the second great Affleck performance of the year, following The Last Duel. The recent Golden Globe nomination for this role makes sense. The movie idolizes Uncle Charlie even more than J.R. does, and that bar is already very high. Affleck uses every ounce of his star charisma to sell this larger than life persona. While he’s always a welcome screen presence, Charlie often feels like a manic pixie dream Uncle. On the surface he’s a salt-of-the-Earth bar owner that lets a teenage J.R. drink beer and hang around his barfly friends. Yet, behind closed door he’s a voracious reader who nurtures J.R.’s dreams of being a writer. The character has no actual flaws, only unfulfilled potential. Since he has no flaws, this means he also has no conflict. The first half finds him sticking up for J.R., particularly around his deadbeat Dad. Once the movie moves on to adult J.R., Charlie is reduced to a fairy God-Uncle, always giving advice at just the right moment.
This is where the movie squanders the goodwill that it has built over its charming, yet pedestrian first half. Tye Sheridan is a talented actor who can easily charm with his “awe shucks” smirk. Unfortunately, no one cares as much about a whiney post-grad as they do a cute, awkward child. It’s exciting to see J.R. make his mother’s dream come true as he goes off to college. Deciding on a major is a less dramatic conflict than anything that happened in the first half. It takes us outside of the Long Island world the movie has lovingly set up and places us in a rote college drama.
Not only that, the adult J.R. comes off as wildly entitled in a way that, generously, could be read as old-fashioned. He instantly wants to get the girl of his dreams, the most prestigious job and more money than his other family members. Any time he encounters any setback, he comes whining to Uncle Charlie’s bar.
The Tender Bar is more successful as a story of a kid looking for a Father figure rather than a college aged kid getting his start as a writer.Oscar-winning screenwriter William Monahan captures the language and texture of J.R. Moehringer’s memoir of the same name. Unfortunately, he fails to structure it in a way that is focused or dramatic. Subplots come and go, almost as if they are trying to hit melodrama bingo at breakneck speed. The same could be said about George Clooney’s direction. He’s best when he’s shooting crowded family or bar scenes, letting the mayhem populate the screen. Unfortunately, there’s a flatness to the vision of the story. While not all of his movies have been successful, even ones like Suburbicon had some stylistic flair to them.
There’s a reason Ben Affleck is the film’s only chance at awards. He’s the center of the movie, even if the movie doesn’t center around him. The rest of the cast tries to mug for the spotlight. Lily Rabe does to Long Island accents what Lady Gaga did to Italian accents in House of Gucci, meaning she completely overdoes it but is always incredibly watchable. Christopher Lloyd shouts to the heavens every chance he gets as the family patriarch. Despite an impressive pedigree, The Tender Bar is too slight in most regards to be memorable. If anything, it’s a Hallmark movie with A-list talent, meant to make you feel good while you forget about it moments later. C+
The Tender Bar opens in select theaters tomorrow, Friday, December 17th and on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, January 7th, 2022.