Following an impressive debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival back in January, Alan Ball’s latest, about a gay southern professor who must travel from liberal New York City back to his hometown to confront his past, finds a wide audience on Amazon Prime Video. An excellently told, very accessible drama with wonderful turns from its central cast, Uncle Frank is one of the highlights of the autumn season.
We join the film in the early 1970s where young Beth Bledsoe (Sophia Lillis) comes of age and travels to college in New York City. Her campus just so happens to be the same one in which her favourite uncle, Frank (Paul Bettany) teaches, and the two reconnect. After inviting herself, along with her new boyfriend Bruce (Colton Ryan), to an off-campus party, hosted by her uncle, Beth discovers that he is gay and has a partner in Wally (Peter Macdissi), who he has been living with, unbeknownst to her and their family, for years. When news reaches them that Frank’s father has suddenly passed away, he and Betty must return to their small hometown of Creekville, South Carolina to face the family.
Ball’s latest foray into family drama, following his huge success winning the Best Original Screenplay for American Beauty twenty years ago, is an entertaining, often touching piece of work, the wonderfully engaging screenplay brilliantly brought to life by the filmmakers and actors. Bettany is particularly striking in the lead, but he has ample support from the talented Lillis, and particularly Macdissi who is arguably the film’s biggest delight as the endearing, and witty Wally.
Uncle Frank doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of Ball’s award-winning work from two decades previous – there are some plot contrivances that one has issues buying into – however, the trio of actors at the centre bring so much warmth and humility to proceedings that it is easy to see past. At just over ninety minutes, the film is trim and moves at a whippy pace, all beautifully shot by Khalid Mohtaseb.
A true highlight of late-2020, for sure; a wonderfully uplifting drama that will stay with you for days after seeing it.
Uncle Frank is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Uncle Frank
Summary
A solid work full of brilliant central performances; a wonderfully uplifting piece that speaks to its audience and will almost certainly delight most.
