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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:7
Rotten:14
Average Rating:4.5/10
Consensus: Despite some beautiful scenery, Tennessee can't extend its simple premise beyond typical independent road trip movie tropes.
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: In this drama, a pair of brothers (played by Adam Rothenberg and Ethan Peck) head from New Mexico to Tennessee on a search for their father, whom they haven't seen in years. But the brothers aren't... [More]
Starring: Ethan Peck, Adam Rothenberg, Mariah Carey, Lance Reddick
Director: Aaron Woodley
The dramatic payoffs are either nonexistent or overly manipulated, and for a journey that starts with so much deep-set pain and regret to end with a sentimental twist feels, to use a phrase anathema in Carey's world, off-key.
Top CriticToo formulaic to be the sort of low-budget film that garners critical buzz or a cult audience; and too 'indie' to click with the mainstream crowd.
So the big question is -- how was Mariah? Surprisingly, Mrs. Cannon was the light in an otherwise morbid and boring film. She had flair, swagger and a convincing Texas accent.
Tennessee veers dangerously close to made-for-TV territory. But you utterly believe the bond between the siblings, and Rothenberg excels in his role of a protective older bro who also happens to be a haunted binge drinker.
Let's knock out the elephant in the room from the jump: Mariah Carey turns in a perfectly respectable performance.
Tennessee treads a path similar to other miser-indies (Ballast, Wendy and Lucy), but without the narrative or aesthetic flair to elevate its woefully tired road-trip-to-self-discovery premise.
Woodley's film mostly floats along on its melancholy drift, so well-attuned to the low-key rhythms of its beaten-down characters that it never quite summons up enough energy for the rest of us, who are along for the ride.
As a Texas waitress, Carey is convincing -- more so than the film itself.
A rewarding and moving small drama with exceptionally fine performances all around.
Tennessee is an earnest, increasingly preposterous road movie about unhealed family wounds and fraternal bonds.
Top CriticThe problem with the film is that it is depressing for no real reason.
It is a brooding, heavy story that has moments of visual beauty, but is ultimately imbued with a permanent glumness.
The good news is that Carey isn't bad.
Mariah Carey is more than just the big star in this small story. She's the warm, charismatic, deliciously down home presence that fills the screen with charm to spare, though her character lacks the attention and depth lavished upon the male protagonists.
A formulaic indie road drama.
Has beautiful scenery and brief suspense, but that's not nearly enough to keep you immersed or captivated in the often contrived story or any of its poorly developed characters.
Though Tennessee feels more like a demo reel than a movie, the simplicity of Peck's performance and the naked pain of Rothenberg's are quite affecting.
Serving merely formulaic find-yourself melodrama, the film coasts along lackadaisically.
Tennessee is occasionally a chore to sit through, but it does yield some third-act rewards for patient viewers, as the characters' willingness to sacrifice for the other is suddenly brought into sharp focus.
The good news for Carey is that she gets to prove she's a pretty decent actress after all. The bad news, of course, is that she's done it in a movie no one has any other reason to see.
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