‘Heavy’

This is a small, quiet miracle of a movie in which tenderness, compassion and insight combine to create a tension that yields a quality of perception that’s almost painful to experience. In his 1996 feature debut, writer-director John Mangold brings remarkably sensitive powers of observation to bear upon ordinary people living ordinary lives and draws superb ensemble performances from a cast headed by Pruitt Taylor Vince, Liv Tyler (both pictured), Shelley Winters and Deborah Harry. When Tyler’s pretty, intelligent Callie takes a waitress job at an Upstate New York tavern, it’s virtual love at first sight for the overweight son Victor (Vince) of the kindly proprietor (Winters). Victor’s predicament gives way to a far larger consideration of the remorseless inevitability of change and the essential isolation and loneliness of most people’s lives. What “Heavy” is really about is the illusion of security bred by the comforting routines of daily life (Cinemax Saturday at 8 p.m.).