Tender exposes the crimes of growing up

Tender is the crime-thriller feature film debut of Adam Hoelzel and features Jesse Garcia (The Odyssey) and Jess Weixler (Teeth) as Billie and Mick Royce, a young and vibrant couple that is experiencing the honeymoon phase and entering the joys of home ownership for the first time as Mick’s uncle left the home to them upon his passing. However, upon realizing the amount of property taxes still due on the home, Mick understands they are deeply in the hole. The answer seemingly comes from the heavens when the couple finds bars of gold in the wall, but as they try to sell the gold and keep their relationship together in the process, they realize what they believed to be the answer to all their problems may be the biggest bane of them all. 

Many of us know the trials and tribulations of home ownership all too well. The financial burden alone is debilitating and that juxtaposition of feeling like something is finally yours makes it all the more confusing. Today, the real estate market across the country is in disarray. The core of the story here is not unlike many real ones, an inherited house that drowns the young new owners in financial obligations that strain their relationship immensely. It seems like an all too familiar reality more than a film concept but the injection of crime and the seedy small town underbelly really adds that special sauce to Hoelzel’s film. There is something so tantalizing when it comes to watching someone’s life slowly fall apart on screen and as you see the descent into madness just to stay ahead of the rat race, you almost feel a kinship to the characters who seem like they're just struggling through the same as anyone else. The Coen brothers-esque style really fills this film with a rich narrative drive that weaves through its well-paced storyline. 

Courtesy of Firebrook Entertainment

Weixler and Garcia actually have great chemistry here, the beginning of the film does a good job at showing what they used to be but the majority of the plot really has them at each others throats and that feeling of hating someone but still having love for them deep down can be difficult to sell but they do a great job. Weixler in particular feels like the star here, she runs the full gamut of emotions and transforms from a quieter girlfriend to a savvy criminal in training. The character exploration of Garcia’s Mick was one of the more fascinating parts of the film. I love the idea of these characters who are aging out of their charm, characters who have relied on a silver tongue and a flashy smile to weasel their way through life, and suddenly it catches up to them. We see so many of these people in day to day life, and Mick is an excellent example of how that looks and feels to the people around guys like that. A fun and out of the ordinary performance from usually comedy heavy David Koechner and a great side role from the extremely underrated Robert Longstreet buoyed the supporting cast nicely.

The main issue that plagues Tender is the sporadic jumpiness of its storyline and its wide net of story to tell. There is a lot going on here, something we all love about those Coen brother style stories is the wide breadth of characters and locations. This film definitely strives for that but at times it feels like it's biting off a bit too much to chew. There is so much going on, it really takes away from our time with some of the more compelling characters like Longstreet and Koechner’s. The spastic jumping from flashback to new location and then back to main storyline left a lot to be pieced together by the viewer and while it wasn’t always bad, it was a little cumbersome to get all of your ducks in a row to arrive at the conclusion. I really liked Hoelzel’s directorial style and some of the unique technical choices he made, but he definitely has some details to fine tune and perfect as he moves forward in his directorial career. All in all, this is an exciting and fresh crime thriller that really encapsulates the plight of modern home ownership, relationships, and how easy it is for regular people to become involved in not so regular situations.

You can see Tender today on demand digitally everywhere.