Russell Crowe in ‘Tenderness’

Lucky for us that Russell Crowe can still find time to act in films outside of the studio system. As with his  earlier works like ‘Romper Stomper,’  ‘The Sum of Us,’ and ‘The Quick and the Dead,’  one gets the feeling Crowe is more at home making the smaller, character-driven  films. From Australian  director Jon Polson (Swim Fan, Hide & Seek),  ‘Tenderness’ follows a violent teenager, Eric, whose life  becomes more unruly when  he meets  Lori, a 16-year-old runaway. Crowe plays Lieutenant Cristofuoro, a cop who sets out to unravel Eric’s complex past. It also stars Laura Dern, last seen in HBO’s ‘Recount.’

Filmed in New York City in May 2006, scheduled for a Fall  2007 release and then postponed, we should finally  experience the ‘Tenderness’  sometime  during the 2008 Oscar season.