Uncle John

There's a lot to like about this movie.

Its deliberate pace will alienate some viewers. Others will appreciate the artful way the back-story is unveiled and the lack of up-front exposition. The performances are all excellent, but John Ashton steals the show as the title character. The direction and photography are fantastic as well.

I found the structure interesting, and was surprised at the some of the choices that were made. Many films follow different story lines and bring them together for a definitive conclusion. In Uncle John, the two story lines do pass by each other but they don't merge. And after their brief meeting, they go their separate ways.

I found the story following Ashton's character to be the more interesting to of the two and I believe a movie could have been successfully made using that storyline alone. Still, this film works and I will definitely check out Steven Piet's next.

If you do enjoy Uncle John, I would give this film a try:

Small Town Murder Songs- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1429392/? ref_=nv_sr_1

I watch this knowing nothing about it as I like to do with smaller, indie type films.I watched this expecting a horror movie, it isn't. The acting was fantastic, especially John Ashton who I hadn't seen since way back when he was in Beverly Hills! The pacing was slow but kept me glued the whole time. The sub story which runs along separately from the main story was great. Casting was perfect. Could quite easily pass as a Cohen Bros film, very Fargo-ish. The last 20 minutes are so tense my heart was thumping! Beautifully shot, I will be checking out the director's other work real soon and I just hope this gets a UK blu ray release. A real gem of a film that looks great, sounds great and shows yet again that you don't need £100 million to make a great film! Bravo!

I feel like this was a story that could have used a lot more refining around the edges, as to make the mystery aspect hit a lot harder and to make it more effective. As it is, it's still pretty good. I do admire it's resistance to go for easy, cheap thrills, as overall the film never goes into places that you expect it to go, or to have twists and turns that are the usual for this type of film. The acting is very good I think, all believable in their parts especially the lead actor playing Uncle John. I do think that the film would leave a lot of audiences wanting more, and expecting a lot more out of it. As it is however, I do feel like it leaves a strong enough impact to really be recommended.

Veteran character actor John Ashton ("Beverly Hills Cop" I and II, "Gone Baby Gone") is sublime as "Uncle John", a quiet pillar of a small farming community whose residents are blithely unaware how deep his still waters run. Deep and dark.

Seems that John has lost someone dear to him. And there are those who will pay for his pain. Dearly.

Alex Moffat and the stunning Jenna Lyng (a dead ringer for TV's Lisa Ling) are also quite good here as coworkers/burgeoning lovers Ben and Kate. The young couple have come a callin' on Ben's sweet Uncle John for a brief overnight visit. What they don't know about their kind and gracious host won't hurt these two.

Which is certainly a damn sight more than can be said for the poor bastard who dares cross this benevolent, yet unforgiving, curious country gentleman.

Although this movie can be a bit slow and the two plots may seem to be polar opposites at first. They come together and the film becomes deeper. This picture demonstrates what could be going on at your neighbors house. I loved the quaintness, the true location shooting and how real the film seems due to the low budget. The main characters act fairly well, but there are some flaws in the supporting actors. John Ashton was great as Uncle John and portrayed the character's turmoil and quiet strengths very well. The nephew, played by Alex Moffat, was upbeat and witty and took the movie in a different direction with his quest for love. I think the film is a great movie for buffs or people flipping through the independent section of Netflix. Don't expect gore or moments of suspense. This movie is strictly about cause and effect.