Tender Hooks

In late 1980s Sydney, Mitchell (nicknamed Mitch) is a young woman living in a run-down Kings Cross apartment building when she falls for the mischievous and charming Rex, fresh out of jail. Their relationship is loving and sweet but turbulent, as both struggle with clashing personalities and backgrounds.

While Mitchell works in a hair salon and attempts to make a life for herself and Rex, she becomes frustrated with his immaturity and tendency to fall back into criminal offending. Meanwhile their mutual friend Gayle, who grew up with Rex in state care and now divides her time between sex work and shifts at the salon with Mitchell, finds herself in a clearly violent and toxic abusive relationship. As Mitchell supports her through it, she wonders about the nature of her own more ambiguous relationship with Rex.

Eventually, Rex finds himself in jail again and Mitchell continues to support him. When he escapes shortly before the end of his sentence, Mitchell visits him as he hides out from the police in a Kings Cross apartment and angrily confronts him about his reckless behaviour. Meanwhile, an unrelated siege is taking place which leads the police to block off the area.

Rex and his criminal friends then decide to leave Sydney and head for the North Coast. Mitchell appears to be joining them, but then gets out of the car at the last minute as they approach a police checkpoint. They share a final tender moment together and part on good terms before Mitch walks away.

As the film ends, she watches from a distance as Rex gets out of the car and speaks briefly to a police officer - who then removes a barricade, allowing them to drive on.

Producer Chris Oliver met Callaghan at Swinburne Film and Television School in the early 70s, then crossed paths with her again in Sydney during the early 1980s. He was drawn to Callaghan's script that ultimately became Tender Hooks (then titled Contact Visit) seeing it as an opportunity to move away from documentaries to "social realism" along the lines of Callaghan's earlier short film Greetings from Wollongong.{{Cite book |author=David Stratton |title=The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry |publisher=Pan MacMillan |year=1990 |page=145}}

The original inspiration for the film came from a female friend of Callaghan's who regularly visited a boyfriend in jail. Callaghan noticed that not only was he "gradually hardening" from life in prison but that her life had become "suspended" as well, meaning they were both effectively "doing time". She told The Age:

{{Blockquote|

I chose to look at prison and the prisoner from the point of view of the loved one - of the visitor, which is what I know - how Mitch is imprisoned by her love for Rex and the conflict it induces in both their lives... With Tender Hooks, I wanted to foster understanding through entertainment. It looks at society from the outside, from the point of view of characters who don't easily slot into it. Like any sub-culture, these characters say as much about the dominant culture as they do about themselves.{{cite news |last1=Burchall |first1=Greg |title=Starstruck on 'Tender Hooks' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-age-tender-hooks-1998-australian-f/163956294/ |access-date=26 January 2025 |work=The Age |date=12 May 1989}}

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Oliver began seeking funding for the film in 1983. After a lengthy and complicated process involving multiple backers, pre-production finally began in August 1987. The shoot proved difficult for many reasons, including various technical issues and the fact that the script called for "over forty noisy, no-parking inner-city locations, many of them night exteriors, which had to be shot in 33 ten-hour days".{{cite news |last1=Grieve |first1=Anna |title=What Price Hollywood? The Financing of Tender Hooks |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/213879288/23021085 |access-date=25 January 2025 |work=Filmnews |date=1 September 1988}}

This was Kennedy's third feature film, having had her breakout role in the 1982 musical Starstruck then deciding to take her career in a new dramatic direction with 1985's Wrong World.{{cite news |last1=McGregor |first1=Alex |title=Jo Kennedy fights the star backlash |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-wrong-world/163957487/ |access-date=26 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=9 May 1986}} Kennedy sought a "precarious" balance in depicting Mitchell, not wanting to make her seem like a victim while also trying to avoid overplaying her strength. Callaghan praised her performance, saying the subtlety of the role was achieved "not with (Kennedy's) actions... but through a kind of intelligence that crosses her face". Both cited Mike Leigh as an influence.{{cite news |last1=Charlton |first1=Susan |title=Caught in the Tender Trap |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-tender-hooks/163883179/ |access-date=25 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=24 February 1989}}

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, at one stage Needles and Kennedy dated in real life.{{cite news |last1=Barnett |first1=Ross |title=A veteran of mad times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-nique-needles/164048578/ |access-date=27 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=15 January 1987}} They had previously appeared on stage together as siblings in the 1982 Nimrod Theatre Company production of The Kid.{{cite news |last1=Hoad |first1=Brian |title=Nimrod finds the lost generation |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1453497372/view?sectionId=nla.obj-1652290612 |access-date=28 January 2025 |work=The Bulletin |date=11 October 1983}}

One early screening took place at UCLA in November 1988.{{cite news |title=Session listings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/la-weekly-tender-hooks-australian-film/163883979/ |access-date=25 January 2025 |work=LA Weekly |date=10 November 1988}} An Australian theatrical release followed in February 1989.{{cite news |title=Tender Hooks session listing |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-tender-hooks/163883996/ |access-date=25 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=21 February 1989}}{{cite news |title=Tender Hooks session listing |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-tender-hooks/163883994/ |access-date=25 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=1 March 1989}}

Tender Hooks was released on VHS in Australia in the late 1980s. In recent years, it has been issued on DVD and video on demand by Ronin Films.{{cite web |title=Tender Hooks |url=https://www.roninfilms.com.au/video/0/0/460.html |website=Ronin Films |access-date=26 January 2025}}

Filmnews praised the film, saying that Callaghan "soars above mediocrity and cheap tricks in a cynical film industry by writing her characters a responsive way out of their situation and giving the film a non-sensationalised ending... Tender Hooks is on the way up and let's hope you are too, Mary Callaghan."{{cite news |last1=K |first1=S |title=Tender Hooks |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/23021184 |access-date=25 January 2025 |work=Filmnnews |date=1 March 1989}} Karen Polglaze of The Canberra Times called the film "realistic and sensitive" and a "must".{{cite news |last1=Polglaze |first1=Karen |title=A realistic and sensitive story |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/122267803 |access-date=25 January 2025 |work=The Canberra Times |date=5 June 1989}}

• Jo Kennedy as Mitchell ("Mitch")
• Nique Needles as Rex
• Anna Phillips as Gayle
• John Polson as Tony
• Shane Connor as Wayne
• Simon Westaway as Motorcycle Cop

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.roninfilms.com.au/feature/460/tenderhooks.html Tender Hooks] at Ronin Films
• {{IMDb title|98455|Tender Hooks}}
• [http://www.ozmovies.com.au/movie/tender-hooks Tender Hooks] at Oz Movies

Category:Australian drama films

Category:1989 films

Category:1989 directorial debut films

Category:1980s English-language films

Category:1980s Australian films

Category:Films set in Sydney

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