It’s been ten years since director George Clooney signed a successful film. Ten years that laziness seems to have gradually eroded the talent shown in his first feature films – Confessions of a dangerous man (2002), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), The Steps of Power (2011). The latest, The Tender Bar, broadcast on the Prime Video platform from Friday, January 7, unfortunately does not reverse this inclination. Let us even say that it worsens it so much the spectacle offered seems derisory, faded and deeply artificial. Like the characters featured in the film. These are mainly limited to members of the family of American journalist and writer JR Moehringer, including the autobiographical novel, The Tender Bar (2005), inspired the screenplay for George Clooney’s eighth feature film.
In this family, therefore, is first the young JR (Daniel Ranieri), 11 years old, a wise boy like an image whose father has left the marital home; then the mother, Dorothy (Lily Rabe), who, penniless and exhausted by existence, decided to return to live, with her son, in the family home on Long Island, where her patriarch (Christopher Lloyd), an eccentric figure and awkward, grumbles and flatters all day long while his wife endures it. Finally, there is Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck) – Dorothy’s brother – who, single and childless, is responsible for teaching his nephew about life.
The lessons, which aim to teach the kid the art of becoming a man, occupy a large part of the film. They tirelessly bring us back to the same place: the bar counter The Dickens, owned by Charlie. It is in these places that Charlie, while serving the customers, dispenses his long monologues (on women, cars, alcohol, cigarettes, but also literature) to little JR, attentive and a little fascinated by this uncle who seems to know what he is talking about.
Boring everyday
These learning scenes captured in the privacy of a smoky and benevolent atmosphere (between men) alternate with those, more damn and noisy, of family life where each, however, remains predictable, faithful to the stereotype that has been assigned to him. from the start. So that everyday life quickly becomes boring, going around in circles, repeating the same anecdotes. One of them is to knock over or break the radio every time the voice of the DJ nicknamed “The Voice” is heard on the air. Which is none other than the father of JR
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