The Tender Bar

This year's entry in the poor kid who makes it as a writer awards bait entry. Like last year's HILLBILLY ELEGY, George Clooney's movie laddles on the woes and miseries while always trying to assure the audience that it will be all right in the end -- it's a memoir, after all (J. R. Moehringer).

Ben Affleck plays Uncle Charlie (literally "Uncle Charlie") who becomes a mentor to the author, JR (Daniel Ranieri as a tyke; Tye Sheridan as a college student). Affleck is good here, even if the character is idealized - yes, he's a bartender still living with his father, but he's also wicked smarht! Ranieri is a decent child actor, but Sheridan is more annoying than heroic here. Briana Middleton is winning as JR's on again, off again girlfriend, but one never gets why she's be attracted to him. Lily Rabe and Chrisopher Lloyd do fine, but they are playing cliches.

More crucially, the viewer never gets a true glimpse of JR's supposed writing talent. It's all second hand - "that kid's got it!" William Monahan's screenplay plays it safe and to the middle, and Clooney doesn't really give it much style, either.