Reel Night Out Movie: Tender Mercies (1983)

Robert Duvall's Oscar-winning performance dominates this study of Mac Sledge, a hard-drinking country singer whose latest binge has left him stranded at a remote and run-down Texas motel owned by a young widow whose joys in life are her young son and singing in her church choir. Penniless, Mac offers to work "a couple of days" to pay his bill, a stay that's extended indefinitely when the two fall in love. Starring: Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, Betty Buckley, Ellen Barkin, Wilford Brimley. Universal Pictures, PG, 1983, 89 minutes.