Uncle Frank

 2.5/4

Starring: Paul Bettany, Sophia Lillis, Peter Macdissi

Rated R for Language, Some Sexual References and Drug Use

"Uncle Frank" is a would-be three hanky movie filled with every gay movie cliche in the book.  I can almost count them on my hand.  The bigoted parents, the liberated sibling, big city vs country bumpkins, the misuse of the Bible, and so on.  This is the kind of movie that I praised "Giant Little Ones" for not being.  I don't mind that the film covers familiar material.  Virtually everyone in the LGBTQ community has lived through them in one way or another.  What disappoints me is how they're used in such a slapdash manner.  You can almost predict the PC lines before they're read by the actors.

Beth (Lillis) has always loved her worldly uncle Frank (Bettany).  He respects her mind in ways that no one else in her family does.  They talk literature together and he encourages her to follow her dreams.  So she goes to NYU where he is a professor of literature.  When she goes to one of his parties, he drops a bombshell: he has a male lover named Wally (Macdissi), and his father's bigotry is why he stays away.  Unfortunately his father drops dead the very next day, and that means going home to see his family.

Half of this movie made me want to roll my eyes while half genuinely threatened to move me.  On the one hand, it is a checklist of gay sob stories.  Writer/director Alan Ball, who is gay, is apparently more interested in preaching to the choir than changing hearts.  Or even exploring who these characters are.  He has an all-star cast but they are only given stick figures to play.  They're sounding boards for the points he wants to make, and we've heard them all before.  That the bulk of this movie is set in the 70s is no excuse for flat writing and far too much artifice.

And what a cast it is!  The ever reliable Paul Bettany, rising star Sophia Lillis, and established character actors Steve Zahn, Judy Greer, Margo Martindale, Lois Smith and Stephen Root.  Paul Bettany is uneven. He's good at playing a tortured soul, but his scenes as the adventurous uncle at the beginning ring false.  It's hard to imagine why Beth would be so enraptured by him because he lacks any sort of charm.  Compare him to Eva Green in "Cracks" and you'll see what I mean (well, the early scenes of that film anyway).  Sophia Lillis is good as the young kid who has no problem having a gay uncle (she even develops an instinctive protectiveness of him).  Peter Macdissi (Ball's partner) gives the most rounded performance.  Wally knows that Frank is tortured, but of course wants to meet his family, and blah blah blah.  The other actors play their roles exactly as you'd expect.  Steve Zahn is the goof, Judy Greer is his ditzy wife, Margo Martindale is the matriarch and Lois Smith is the batty aunt.  Special mention has to go to Stephen Root, who plays Frank's homophobic father.  Root is only on screen for two scenes, but he is able to create a real sense of menace.  No wonder Frank is afraid of him.

Some parts are genuinely moving.  When the cast gets to play characters rather than mouthpieces, the film takes off.  The acting is too good for a complete train wreck.  And the tragic event in Frank's past is effectively conveyed.  Also worth mentioning is that Frank and Wally's relationship is nicely played.  Bettany and Macdissi have good chemistry; these two feel like they've been in a relationship for years.

It's a sad thing, this film.  It has the cast to make a good movie, and anyone who has seen "American Beauty" knows what a good writer Ball is.  And anyone who has seen "Brokeback Mountain" knows that the inner torments of gay men are fertile ground for powerful drama.  What this movie lacks is the courage to let the characters speak for themselves.