"Tenderness" takes a ham-fisted approach to drama

By Megan Lehmann

SYDNEY (Hollywood Reporter) - The cheerless drama "Tenderness" is the cinematic equivalent of a stodgy meal: leaden and labored, it sits like a brick in your stomach after the end credits roll.

Australian director and Tropfest founder John Polson's sophomore directorial outing with GreeneStreet Films (after 2002's "Swimfan") even manages to sap the charismatic Russell Crowe's customary onscreen verve. Crowe, clearly doing a favor for his mate Polson, phones in a supporting performance as a semi-retired cop on the trail of a serial killer, justifiably embarrassed at having to deliver lines like, "He's addicted to the intimacy of the kill, the last beautiful sigh in his hand."

A bunch of murky motives, dozy pacing and two unlikable central characters forced into painful plot contrivances make this low-budget indie increasingly indigestible. Crowe's marquee name won't be able to save "Tenderness" from sinking like a stone after its April 30 Australian release. Distributor Lionsgate has not yet set a U.S. release date, and the film's best prospects might be on DVD.

Emil Stern's underwritten screenplay, adapted from Robert Cormier's emotionally complex novel, begins with 18-year-old Eric Poole's (Jon Foster) release from juvenile detention after serving just three years for the brutal murder of his parents.

He's greeted on the outside by two separate but equally troubled souls: Crowe's despondent Lt. Cristofuoro, treading water while his wife lies in a coma, and 16-year-old Lori (a game Sophie Traub), who has developed an obsessive crush on the teen killer but behaves more like an annoying kid sister.

Lori, a precocious motormouth with a death wish, attaches herself limpetlike when Eric embarks on a road trip through Upstate New York to rendezvous with a hottie he briefly encountered in prison. The rumple-suited Cristofuoro is on their tail, convinced that Eric is a psychopath who will kill again and determined to stop him.

We know the detective is on to something from the way Eric periodically fondles weapons as various as a hammer and a pillow while wrestling with explosions of temper, but Foster's one-note performance ensures that his psyche remains frustratingly opaque.

The whole film is like this, with characters doing things merely because the script tells them to. The sluggish narrative is propelled in fits and bursts by ham-fisted flashbacks that do little to clarify motive.