Mark Reviews Movies: UNCLE FRANK

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 24, 2020

Writer/director Alan Ball slowly brings Uncle Frank to a conclusion that's not necessarily false, but it does feel a bit too dishonest in its simplicity. The whole story, which shifts perspectives about halfway through, is about an 18-year-old girl, trying to find her place in the world and herself, and her 40-something uncle, a gay man who knows himself but is terrified what will happen if his family learns that truth.

After spending some time with the young woman, as she decides to assert her desires for her own life instead of going along with the expectations of others, Ball's screenplay digs into the life, past, and inner turmoil of her uncle. There's little but pain, fear, and regret here. The story becomes less about the man's attempt to come to terms with those feelings and more about waiting to see what will happen if and, likely, when the rest of his family learns that he's gay.

The core of the story of Frank Bledsoe (Paul Bettany), a university professor in New York City, really begins when this movie ends, but Ball doesn't seem to realize that fact. Instead, it's all about the anticipation, the tension, and the struggle of a man caught up in self-doubt and essentially delaying the inevitable. When the inevitable does arrive, the movie doesn't even allow the character a chance to speak for himself. That's just a bit of the dishonesty here.

All of it begins, though, with Elizabeth (Sophia Lillis), Frank's niece, who goes by "Betty" at the age of 14 in 1969, when the family has come together to celebrate the birthday of her grandfather Daddy Mac (Stephen Root). We catch a quick but informative glance at the dynamics and conflicts within the extended family.

Mac's wife Mammaw (Margo Martindale) is sweet and kind. The girl's father Mike (Steve Zahn) is verbally abusive toward his wife Kitty (Judy Greer) and anyone whose behavior seems out of line (Mac cheers his favored son for laying down the law). The sons' sister Neva (Jane McNeill) is mostly quiet, which becomes odd later, when she becomes a vital figure in Frank's constant debate between keeping his secret and finally being honest with his family.

As for Frank, he stays out of the way, quietly reading on the porch but lighting up when his niece comes for a talk about literature and how messed up the rest of the family is. It's Frank who encourages Betty to become "Beth," to start planning for college, and to consider how big of a world there is outside of the little town in South Carolina.

Four years later, Beth has changed, attending college where Frank teaches. Just as she's finding her place there, she learns that Frank's "roommate" Wally (Peter Macdissi) is actually his committed partner. Just as she's figuring out how to react to this information, the phone rings in Frank's apartment. Daddy Mac has died. It's time for Beth, Frank, and Wally to take a road trip, back to South Carolina for the funeral.

That's when the perspective changes to Frank, whose cheerful mood drops upon realizing he has to return home and further declines when Beth starts asking about his romantic past. Through flashbacks, we see what has long haunted the uncle, as a teenaged Frank (played by Cole Doman) experiences his first relationship with a young man. It ends tragically, and as the memories form more clearly, we understand why Mac's death, which Frank confesses to imagining so often, has brought up not relief, but only so much hidden pain.

There is undeniable honesty to this ache, and that's enough to carry the scenes on the road, as Beth and Wally bond, as Wally and Frank's relationship hits a bit of a rough patch (Wally wants to be there for the man he loves, but Frank wants to avoid any kind of trouble if his family or anyone in town realizes their relationship), and Frank stews in self-pity and, upon arriving in his hometown, travel-sized bottles of booze. Bettany plays Frank's overt charms and silent despair with equal degrees of effectiveness, although his internalized performance is let down a bit by Ball in the third act, when the character lets out all of that built-up pressure in drunken arguments and tearful confessionals. Lillis' promise as a young actor continues, although Ball more or less abandons Beth to the sidelines as an outside observer to Frank's regression into misery.

It's difficult to explain how and why the movie stumbles so much and so often in the third act without giving away too many details, but it can be said that the movie denies Frank of his big moment for a beyond-the-grave confirmation of Mac's deplorable nature. It's a gut-punch of a moment, for sure, but once the shock fades, we realize how much Ball has sacrificed for a manipulative surprise.

As for the ending that's really a beginning, Uncle Frank offers a simplistically optimistic view of the results of this situation, which is encouraging but a bit hasty. Even from Ball's rosy view, there's still work to be done in regards to reconciliation and acceptance, and isn't that the story that really matters here?

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