The Tender Bar Parent Guide

Life for Dorothy Moehringer (Lily Rabe) has been difficult since her divorce, not least because her former husband (Max Martini). Things have been so hard, in fact, that she’s taking her young son, J.R. (Daniel Ranieri), and moving back in with her parents. While she sees moving home as a failure, J.R. loves spending time with the eclectic family: Grandpa (Christopher Lloyd), Grandma (Sondra James), and all the various aunts and cousins. But most of all, he likes spending time with Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck), a bartender at the neighborhood hangout, The Dickens. As J.R. grows up, Charlie gives him some invaluable life lessons about the importance of family, responsibility, and education. And when J.R. (now played by Tye Sheridan) goes off to university, he takes those lessons with him. But being away from home means making his own decisions, and it’s going to be up to him to decide how he wants to live his life.

If I’m honest (which does happen from time to time), I was expecting this to be a vaguely depressing “absent father film” with the only high point being Christopher Lloyd playing a bizarre old man. While I can confirm that Christopher Lloyd is both insane and wonderful, spending his screentime drinking, farting, and lying about farting (not necessarily in that order), I can also say that I was completely wrong. This is one of the most warmly sentimental movies I’ve seen in a while. Even Ben Affleck, who I’ve been largely unimpressed with of late, manages to be genuine, kind, and entertaining throughout.

The biggest concern for viewers, by far, is going to be the profanity. There are 77 f-bombs in 106 minutes, which you might justifiably consider to be a tad excessive. As you might imagine for a film largely set in a bar, there’s also a lot of drinking. It’s almost solely social in nature, and the film does have consequences for characters who drink excessively or irresponsibly. I was pleasantly surprised that there was no underage drinking whatsoever. Once the younger characters start drinking, they even show their ID’s. Responsible drinking is not the norm in film, especially when college kids are involved.

In pleasant comparison to the deluge of stress-inducing action or guilt riddled drama, The Tender Bar is, as the name suggests, quite a gentle little film. That’s not to say that no one has any problems, but the tone stays light and positive in spite of the struggles. Above all else, the film is focused on the importance of a kind and supportive family, even if that family is, at best, eccentric. It’s not going to break any new ground cinematically, but it is a cozy way to spend time with an oddball group of loveable outcasts.