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The reason why I prefaced my recommendation with "out on a limb" is that those preferring action movies will be greatly disappointed as I found out when I screened it for some colleagues a few years back. There are no exploding cars, eye-dazzling special effects and not a single gunshot is fired in the ~90 minute runtime. They derided Tender Mercies as a boring chick flick.
Instead what makes this gentle film, for which Duvall won a much-deserved Oscar, so compelling is its story of redemption as a broken-down country singer, Mac Sledge (Duvall), turns his life around thanks to the Christian love of Rosa Lee (Tess Harper, known nowadays as Jesse Pinkman's mom in Breaking Bad). Above and beyond the finely crafted story, is its depiction of Texas, the South and, most of all, Christianity. There's not the typical mocking of the Southern Evangelical. Instead the scene of Mac Sledge's baptism in a Conservative Texas church is handled with respect and dignity. And if you don't get a wee bit misty-eyed when Sledge sings "Wings of a Dove", then you're lying! :)
Yes, sure I like Duvall as Tom Hagen, "Bull" Meechum and even Boo Radley, but I think his role as Mac Sledge is his finest.
I pinged you ansel12 since I think you might like it if you haven't already seen it.