01
The Straight Story
Why this pick
Like Tender Mercies, it finds spiritual weight in plainspoken rural lives, patient observation, and a damaged man’s quiet effort to make peace with himself and family.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1983 1h 32m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Tender Mercies
Drama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Tender Mercies, try these.
01
02
The Apostle
Why this pick
Robert Duvall again anchors a deeply lived-in portrait of faith, regret, and self-reinvention, with the same unhurried attention to regional detail and complicated grace.
03
Ulee's Gold
Why this pick
A restrained performance and modest Florida setting support a drama about a guarded older man shouldering family burdens—quiet, compassionate, and alert to small acts of care.
04
Ballast
Why this pick
This austere Southern drama treats grief, isolation, and tentative reconnection with the same trust in silence and everyday labor, though in a starker and more melancholy register.
05
The Spitfire Grill
Why this pick
A wounded outsider’s arrival in a small town grows into an unforced story of belonging and renewal, carried by gentle pacing and faith in ordinary decency.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall), a washed up, alcoholic country singer, awakens at a run-down Texas roadside motel and gas station after a night of heavy drinking. He meets the owner, a young widow named Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), and offers to work in exchange for a room. Rosa Lee, whose husband was killed in the Vietnam War, is raising her young son, Sonny (Allan Hubbard), on her own. She agrees to let Mac stay under the condition that he does not drink while working. The two begin to develop feelings for one another, mostly during quiet evenings sitting alone and sharing bits of their life stories.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Robert Duvall
Mac Sledge
Michael Crabtree
Lewis Menefee
Norman Bennett
Reverend Hotchkiss
Tess Harper
Rosa Lee
Betty Buckley
Dixie
Wilford Brimley
Harry
Ellen Barkin
Sue Anne
Paul Gleason
Reporter