Uncle Frank - a film review

Watched a movie last night called Uncle Frank.  An Amazon Original out on Prime.  I'm having trouble deciding how to evaluate it because it has several aspects which, in my mind, don't match up, several pieces that you don't expect to find together.

For one, it's a coming out story about a gay man who grows up in a soul-shredding environment of religious homophobia. He internalizes this hatred and lives with it as a curse. It nearly destroys him and his loved ones. That is a theme so familiar it's actually more of a genre than a theme, and one I associate with cliché.

A second piece is that the story nonetheless creates strong characters that are thoroughly familiar, people you can both connect with and even admire, and people you have to pity. And, in one case, despise. The film has some decent acting, and includes Margo Martindale, who I think is a great character actress, as Uncle Frank's mother.

A third piece is that the film is made by serious filmmakers. It's a real movie, not something slapped together for a gay audience notorious for watching anything gay-related. And it is directed by Alan Ball, who got an Oscar for his screenplay, American Beauty. And he was the creator, writer and executive producer of one of my all-time favorite TV series, Six Feet Under.  No slouch, in other words, even though I don't think the histrionics of Uncle Frank will allow you to put it in the same category in terms of quality filmmaking.

A fourth piece probably says more about me than the film itself. I have trouble believing that there is an audience for this theme/genre. The story is set in South Carolina (and the film was made in North Carolina) but even there I expect more enlightenment these days. I repeat, this is probably naiveté on my part. It's hard to believe the main character, Uncle Frank, can leave the South, go off to New York and become a literature professor and live with a male lover for ten years and still not be able to scratch out the self-loathing his father instilled in him. Apparently I'm in the minority here. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 78% positive rating, which ain't to sneeze at.

The plot line is clichéd and trite as hell and the road trip drags. There are no real surprises and the happy ending leaves you with a sense that you've been to yet another gay themed film made for Sunday School.

So it's a mixed bag. Won't go with a rating as high as Rotten Tomatoes gives it. More like fifty-fifty.

A movie to watch when you don't want to focus on more taxing thought.