ST. LOUIS — Secrets can be poisonous if held onto for a long period of time. Sexual identity-related secrets, though, can work overtime on one's soul, because once the secret is out, it stays out. A finality that still exists today, but was especially turbulent back in the 1940's and continued into the 1970's.
Alan Ball wrote and directed "Uncle Frank," a fictional film that feels like it was fused with some real, unfortunate events. In this coming-of-age/coming out drama, Frank Bledsoe (Paul Bettany) comes home to North Carolina for his father's (Stephen Root) funeral, to a family that thinks he's a straight 46-year-old male living in New York. They don't know about his boyfriend of ten years, Wally (Peter Macdissi, a veteran of Ball's "Six Feet Under).
Sophia Lillis is the young niece who has been taken by Frank's tenderhearted care and thoughtfulness, even if she doesn't know the entire story. It's these three characters that form the rock of Ball's tale, giving it life even when the more formulaic cinematic tendencies try to barge in. "Uncle Frank" isn't a full-blown funeral reveal terror countdown; it's also a little road movie and a tale of self-discovery in your 40's.
Bettany makes this film hit hard. With all due respect to Root, Steve Zahn (as one of Frank's brothers), Margo Martindale (Frank's mom), Lillis, and even the wonderful Macdissi, this is a film powered by an actor and his name is Paul. It's a galvanizing performance that provides a dose of shock to the story whenever it starts veering down the "We've seen this many times before" lane. Bettany doesn't just try to understand Frank. You can read the character all across his face. He uses the slightest of facial expressions and various shorthand techniques to give a performance that ranks among the best of the year and the very best of his career.
He's one of cinema's best kept secrets in a way, a performer people know mostly from big projects where he is merely a supporting presence. The amount of people who will continue to know him as Jarvis/Vision instead of Ted Kaczynski in 2017's "Manhunt," Will Emerson in 2011's "Margin Call," or Ball's deeply personal film.
Coincidentally, even the most personal tales can be drawn with broad strokes. There is a narrative disconnect in "Uncle Frank," a plot mechanism that forces a film to reach certain checkpoints so the running time is fulfilled. There are some moments in the film that don't seem honest, and other scenes that are a little too on the head. There's some fairy tale magic in the end, akin to this month's Hulu Original, "Happiest Season."
Macdissi is a great find, and he's not completely new. You may have caught him in a small role back in David O. Russell's "Three Kings," the amateur superhero tale, "The Losers," or in 15 episodes of Ball's beloved HBO series. If Bettany is the quietly seething repressed rage center of "Uncle Frank," Macdissi's Wally is the bevy of warmth at the center. Wally's smile seems to defuse just about every ruggedly contemplative maneuver made by Frank here. It's a nice mix that I wish had more screen time not attached to the reveal. Bettany and Macdissi make you want to spend more time in New York with this couple instead of seeing them splintered back at Frank's childhood home.
But Ball's film has a message and it's not too rusty just yet. Acceptance and secrets often run hand in hand, trading shots and establishing cover for each other during harsh times, but all of it eventually comes to a head. For the most part, "Uncle Frank" is mostly about the latter part, and that's okay because it fits the story's motives.
Bottom Line: While saturated by other, very similar stories, it's Bettany that sets this one apart. His performance is as honest, relentless, compassionate, and without manipulation as we want these stories to be. You'll never hear a harsher reading of a patriarch's will, and the warmth in this film proved to be its saving grace, along with its star. It's worth a watch, even if only to finally recognize Bettany as a special talent. Casting him was the best move Ball made here.
"Uncle Frank" is currently streaming worldwide on Amazon Prime.
