The Tender Bar

George Clooney brings a warm glow to another coming-of-age memoir steeped in family values and homespun wisdom.

The write stuff: Ben Affleck with Tye Sheridan

The cinema is awash with adaptations of coming-of-age memoirs. J.R. Moehringer’s story is not that spectacular, but it is full of rich characters, canny observations, high ambition and a love of literature. The titular bar, in Manhasset, Long Island, is a retreat from family trauma, where it dispenses spirits, cocktails, good advice and lots of reading material. It’s no coincidence, then, that it’s called the Dickens Bar and it’s where young J.R. learns some home truths from his uncle Charlie, the bar tender, who gives him a crash course in what he calls “the adult sciences.” Charlie, played with laidback charisma and maturity by Ben Affleck, is a father figure to J.R. and tells the kid how it is: he’s lousy at sports so he should concentrate on reading, because, “You're a writer the minute you say you are. Nobody gives you a diploma – you just have to prove it, at least to yourself.”

J.R.’s mother (the luminous Lily Rabe, daughter of David Rabe and Jill Clayburgh) is only too aware that she and her son come from “a long line of fuck-ups” and is determined that J.R. bucks the trend and gets into Yale. It’s a tall dream for a nine-year-old (a receptive Daniel Ranieri) who is having a hard enough time at school and dotes on his absent father, a New York DJ. The boy only ever hears his father on the radio and talks to the wireless as if his father was actually inside it – because J.R. is an optimist. In his early twenties, he is played by Tye Sheridan and the movie shifts up a gear, even though J.R. and his mom still occupy the same ramshackle house as his Grandpa (an irascible, delightful Christopher Lloyd), Grandma (the late Sondra James) and Uncle Charlie.

Unlike many directors, George Clooney does not draw attention to his craft. His MO is just to get the best performances out of his cast and to provide them with the support of an accommodating and professional environment. With his last two movies, he showed what a good director he is with children (Noah Jupe in Suburbicon, Caoilinn Springall in The Midnight Sky) and here he has coaxed a natural, reflective turn from ten-year-old newcomer Daniel Ranieri, through whose eyes we behold the unfolding drama. Clooney also presents a scenario that feels so real and recognisable that one is just happy to wallow in it for its own sake. Then a line of dialogue pops up that stops us in our tracks, such as when J.R.’s roommate Wesley (Rhenzy Feliz) muses: “Everybody's lucky. Everybody alive is lucky, and were descended from the lucky. Luck, it's why we're all here.”

The Tender Bar might not change your life but it’s a pleasure to spend time with. And in the end, J.R. Moehringer did OK for himself – he even got his memoir published, and then had George Clooney make a film out of it. He’s now writing a new memoir, in collaboration with Prince Harry. However, the Kate Middleton who plays a New York Times employee in the film is no relation to the British royal family.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Lily Rabe, Christopher Lloyd, Daniel Ranieri, Max Martini, Rhenzy Feliz, Briana Middleton, Max Casella, Sondra James, Michael Braun, Ivan Leung, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Ezra Knight, David Carl, Michael Steven Costello, Kate Middleton, Ron Livingston. 

Dir George Clooney, Pro George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Ted Hope, Screenplay William Monahan, from the memoir by J.R. Moehringer, Ph Martin Ruhe, Pro Des Kalina Ivanov, Ed Tanya M. Swerling, Music Dara Taylor, Costumes Jenny Eagan, Sound Jon Title.

Amazon Studios/Smokehouse Pictures/Grand Illusion Films-Amazon Prime.
USA. 2021. UK Rel: 7 January 2022. US Rel: 17 December 2021. Cert. 15.