AFI FEST film review: 'Uncle Frank'
A young Southern woman has her eyes opened about the intolerance and shame living within her family in the drama 'Uncle Frank' (screening during AFI FEST 2020 and streaming on Amazon Prime starting Nov. 25).
In short: After the death of a Southern family's intolerant patriarch, NYU freshman Beth (Sophia Lillis) and her gay uncle Frank (Paul Bettany) and his partner Walid (Peter Macdissi) take a road trip from Manhattan to South Carolina for the funeral.
The drama completely empathizes with it two protagonists - the wide-eyed Beth and her worldly, but conflicted, uncle. Lillis embodies the turning point in her life where she's tired of being treated like a little girl, wants to see more of the world - yet has he naiveté of a sheltered small town girl living in Manhattan. While living a life far from his small South Carolina hometown, Frank was allowed to redefine himself - a lesson he's trying to impart on his favored niece and one he's taken to heart out of necessity.
Bettany embraces the two halves of Frank's life. To Beth, Frank is just her cool uncle living in Manhattan - well read and respectful. He's unlike anyone else in their family, and he radiates nonchalant confidence in New York. But all that composure slips away as he travels the long road home. Back home, in a town that despises Frank for who he is, Frank is reduced to living as a closeted gay man - a complete contrast to his openly gay life in the city.
'Frank' is a mostly focused, character driven narrative that picks up momentum after taking a while for the story to come together. Most of the first half hour could be tightened up, if only to get the trio on the room a bit sooner and to trim some narrative fat. And the third act culminates in a pretty distressing misdirect that just comes off as pointless and cruel. Surely Academy Award winning writer Alan Ball ('American Beauty') could have found a more elegant, genuine way for Frank to confront his deep guilt without resorting to a misleading plot turn.
Final verdict: 'Uncle Frank' sheds light on a rarely addressed aspect of the gay experience: the assuredly gay person who knows who he is, has known for decades who he is, yet still fundamentally struggles with his place in his own family.
Score: 3.5/5
'Uncle Frank' screens at AFI FEST and streaming on Amazon Prime starting Nov. 25. This drama is rated R for language, some sexual references and drug use and has a run time of 95 minutes.
