A Tiger's Tale Reviews

A younger-man, older-woman romance with hints of screwball comedy and an aura of teen male fantasy, A TIGER'S TALE is set in a dusty Texas town. C. Thomas Howell plays Bubber Drumm, a 19-year-old high school senior who lives with his ex-veterinarian dad (Charles Durning) along with an assortment of animals, including a tiger named Valentino. Bubber spends his nights with Shirley Butts, a bratty, sex-starved young woman played by Kelly Preston. But before long, Bubber has shifted his attention to Shirley's mother, Rose (Ann-Margret), and they begin a hot and heavy relationship. Things get complicated when Rose learns she is pregnant. Although A TIGER'S TALE is played for the most part as a comedy, the film never really seems to know what it wants to be. The result is a muddled, poorly directed hodgepodge of quirky situations played by actors who deserve better. Charles Durning, Ann Wedgeworth, and James Noble all do fine work, but none of it seems particularly relevant to the rest of the movie.