One of the themes I have been consumed with most of my life is Mercy. What does it really mean? When should it be bestowed? Why is it so hard to honestly grant it? Is it our animal natures and if so, why did God make us this way? Which is my clumsy preface to the film I just watched for the second time in a long time: Tender Mercies, written by Horton Foote and directed by Bruce Beresford. It stars the great Robert Duvall as a country and western songwriter who is at the end of his rope until a young widow and her son take mercy on him and bring him around. His ex-wife is famous for singing his songs and leaving him behind and the subsequent battle with the bottle almost does him in.

Duvall's character Sledge has to address the past he created (don't we all?) which in this case is a beautiful daughter who has not seen her father in years and is lost, lost, lost.

When she shows up in his life after many years of neglect and abuse there is an incredible scene of subtlety and minamalism that is just genius. I think a very young Ellen Barkin plays Sledge's daughter. They face each other and she talks about how his songs have provided for her and that she is getting married. Sledge tries to explain why he has not been in contact with her and then things sort of trail off. As she is leaving, she wonders if Sledge remembers the song he sang to her when she was a child. She hums a few bars of "On the Wings of a Dove" and Sledge looks blank and says no, he doesn't remember. She leaves and as Sledge watches her through the window he begins to sing "On the Wings of a Dove."  

Tears rolled down my face and all I could muster was "Why?"