When you are belittled and threatened for being who you are at a developmental crossroads, it very well may affect your sense of belonging for the rest of your life. When you feel unsafe simply because of who you find yourself in love with, it can seem like the whole world is turning on you. Set a couple of decades before America’s “don’t ask, don’t tell,” era, “Uncle Frank” is a full-hearted film reflecting on homosexual prejudice, rigorously displaying how the hate directed towards one person can trickle down and impact the lives of everyone who cares for them. However respectful the intent, the subtext is still an important part of storytelling, and Uncle Frank’s life lessons are about as subtle as being told how to live your life from a loved one you don’t want advice from.
Written and directed by Alan Ball – the brainchild behind the now-controversially maligned “American Beauty” and creator of “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood” – “Uncle Frank” is text on top of more text, and it’s almost all text Ball has traced out in his creative sandbox before. Though featuring an ensemble cast of marvelous performers – many of whom do the best they can with the wobbly script-work – even actors of this caliber can’t save such a cumbersome motion picture.
Uncle Frank (Paul Bettany) is the only member of the family who has ever given Elizabeth Bledsoe (Sophia Lillis) the time of day, being the daughter of a rambunctious South Carolina household. Everyone calls her Betsy, which she despises, so she plans to pick a new name for herself when setting off to college, settling on Beth. The patriarch of the Bledsoe’s, grandad Daddy Mac (Steven Root), disciplines the family unit from his TV armchair, shouting and instilling fear at each new generation. He obviously has a tumultuous relationship with his son, Frank, disapproving of being gifted an electric shoe polisher as a gift, as if scorned by his boy’s vain attempts to win any sort of favor with him.
After being introduced to the family, the film cuts ahead, four years later. Beth is starting her freshman year of college, in New York, where Frank works as a literature professor, specializing in 20th-century female writers. She meets a student named Bruce (Colton Ryan) who is from North Dakota but pretends to hail from Greenwich Village, the two bonding by listing off their favorite authors. “No men,” he notes after she finishes. “No women,” she counters, after rambling off cliché names like Truman Capote. Beth thinks things are going pretty well between them, but it becomes clear Bruce is a horribly privileged ass-hat with a secret agenda when the academic couple swings by Frank’s apartment for a surprise visit.
Walking in on quite the lively and queer cocktail gathering, Beth becomes overwhelmed by the situation, as well as intoxicants. Nursing (what is likely) her first hangover the next morning, she meets Frank’s roommate, Wally (Peter Macdissi). Uncle Frank then asks her, point-blank: “Do you know what being gay means?” Turns out, Frank has been in a relationship with Wally for 10 years but is too afraid to come out to the family. Soon after, the phone rings and tragedy strikes the family. Frank and Beth head back home, taking to the dark pavement.
As you’ve probably assumed, a majority of their road-trip conversations cover Frank’s closeted issues, Beth asking if he always knew he was gay, when they stop at a diner (again, the script is not exactly subtle). As they get closer to South Carolina, Ball starts inserting random flashback bits, cutting to swooping camera angles, soaring across the treetops as two youths run and play beneath them. This almost acts as the movie’s way of handing off lead acting duties from Lillis to Bettany – Beth being initially presented as our main protagonist, but ends up serving as little more than a vessel through which we see Frank’s emotional turmoil and downward spiral after the pair hit the road for the funeral, effectively abandoning her character.
The random flashbacks do pay off, but the further along Ball’s film treks, the clearer it becomes that he is pulling a vast majority of the elements from previous projects (whether consciously or not). Steven Root’s character rings very Chris Cooper from “American Beauty,” for example, and his similarly threatening presence is effective given Root’s reliable strengths, but the sledgehammer subtlety of the role evokes a one-note, almost parody-like “wrong kid died,” energy. Again, all the performances are solid, but when saddled with this sort of on-the-nose dialog, there’s only so much an actor can do. Talents ranging from Judy Greer to Steve Zahn and Margo Martindale, all feel under-utilized – which should not be possible. Bettany is the main reason to see the film, handling all the introspective turmoil quite impressively – a welcome contrast from the louder acting jobs he’s had recently, such as “Solo,” or “Margin Call.” Still, “Uncle Frank” is an exhibit-A example of how even a great lead performance can’t save a film that doesn’t know what subtext is. [C-]
Follow along with our coverage of this year’s AFI Film Festival here.
