NPR's Stt Simon talks wh Pl Bettany about his starrg role Uncle Frank, a road movie about a gay man who travels home wh his niece for his father's funeral.
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WARM ‘UNCLE FRANK’ OFFERS GLIMPSE OF GAY LIFE HALF A CENTURY AGO
In 1973, teenaged Beth Bledsoe (Sophia Lillis) leav her ral Southern hometown to study at New York Universy where her beloved Uncle Frank (Pl Bettany) is a revered lerature profsor. She soon disvers that Frank is gay, and livg wh his longtime partner Walid “Wally” Naem (Peter Macdissi) -- an arrangement that he has kept secret for years. After the sudn ath of Frank's father -- Beth’s grandfather -- Frank is forced to reluctantly return home for the funeral wh Beth tow, and to fally face a long-buried trma that he has spent his entire adult life nng away om. * gay movie uncle frank *
Uncle Frank is gay and livg New York Cy. He’s always wanted to meet a member of Frank’s fay, but whenever they’ve vised, they’ve been met by Charlotte (Brt Rentschler), a lbian whose specialty is posg as the “slutty girliend” of her gay BFF’s.
A great st and good tentns n't overe Alan Ball's shed, th story about a closeted gay man returng to his South Carola hometown 1974. * gay movie uncle frank *
“I’ve never met a gay person before, ” says Beth. The trailer for “Uncle Frank” mak look like “The Help, ” except this movie’s straight girl is spired and changed by the sufferg of a Magil Homosexual. That forbidn love ends the kd of tragedy rerved for gay characters s Amerin cema.
This film ends by basilly sayg “sure, the homophobic, relig bigots ma my life a livg Hell before makg a half-assed motn to tolerate me after a ath, but they’re still my fay and I should ntue to put up wh them. She soon disvers that Frank is gay, and livg wh his longtime partner Walid “Wally” Naem (Peter Macdissi) -- an arrangement that he has kept secret for years. Uncle Frank isn't the story of that fay, 's the the story of the olst son (Pl Bettany) who long ago fled , orr to pursue a reer as an amic — and a life as an openly gay man — the New York Cy of the 1960s.
Ball's tenncy to over-salt the melodramatic stew this way isn't new — rell Chris Cooper's character om his script for Amerin Bety, who wasn't simply an abive father, but also a snarlg homophobe, a closeted gay man, and, not for nothg, probably a Nazi.
* gay movie uncle frank *
NPR's Stt Simon talks wh Pl Bettany about his starrg role Uncle Frank, a road movie about a gay man who travels home wh his niece for his father's funeral. Set the early ’70s, sts the reliably ft Pl Bettany as a gay man forced to nont the Southern fay to whom he’s stayed closeted — though they’ve managed to munite tac disapproval of his beg “different” anyhow. In one of the weaker plot pots here, he simply n’t unrstand why he n’t be troduced to his lover’s fay — even though the Sdi culture he left behd, such acknowledgment of homosexualy might be greeted by arrt and executn.
First premiered January at the Sundance Film Ftival, the film stars Pl Bettany the tle role as a gay New York Universy lerature profsor who returns home wh his niece and partner for the funeral of his father, but ends up nontg his past the the 1970s, Ball's semi-tobgraphil story follows Beth (played by Sophia Lillis of the It movi) as she mov to New York Cy to attend llege, and cis to track down her Uncle Frank (Pl Bettany of Silas fame The DaVci Co) who moved to the cy years before.
When she and her new boyiend crash a party at Uncle Frank's, she learns he's gay and a relatnship wh Walid "Wally" Naem (Peter Macdissi), a Sdi who is also hidg his sexualy om his road trip film follows the tr as they make their way home to South Carola where they eventually nont Frank's troubled past wh his eply nservative fay.