Uncle John

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.

This actually won an award? Of course, (for cinematography?!) at a small film festival where there isn't much going on. This film is basically about not much. Something about a murder? Maybe. We assume it's a murder but there is no evidence since the film opens with an ambiguous scene. And perhaps the whole film is ambiguous. It's never clear if the opening was a murder, it's never clear to Danny if his brother was murdered. It appears more like Dutch, the town's bully, was depressed and wanted to atone for his misdeeds and doesn't happen upon Uncle John but commits suicide and Uncle John covers it up. The lake was dragged and nothing was discovered. The lead suspect was a dead end. Ben's relationship with Kate is ambiguous. Is it romance or friendship?

This film spends most of the movie in limbo, not going anywhere. Like a sailboat with no wind, in dead calm. Ambiguous relationship/romance, ambiguous murder/suicide, ambiguous uncle (he has a hidden side), ambiguous writing, and more. Makes for a below average movie. It's one redeeming quality is the fairly good acting. John Ashton does a solid job of acting (not award-winning but quietly understated) and the young Ben and Kate (Alex Moffat and Jenna Lyng) are charming and have good chemistry. It has interestingly good intentions but just doesn't cut it. It's like the protagonist of the film, the youthful Ben, who is unsure of many things. It lacks confidence and closure. But it tries.

Which for me is tragic, since I tend to favor independent and international films, rather than the standard Hollywood fare. But this admittedly does not come close to many good films out there. If you skip this movie, you wouldn't miss anything. Real rating? anywhere from 4.7-5.4.

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 tried to give this movie a chance. It started off well, but the story just dragged on, and I felt like I was watching paint dry... There was an opportunity by the director, or the writer to make this movie more interesting to viewers by expanding on the back story of several characters mentioned in the movie and how they connected with the main character. If they had done that, it certainly would have made the movie more interesting and would have given viewers a clearer story as to why the main character, made the choices he made. To me, that missing information, was the key to the entire story and it wasn't told... at all. Thus making the film as a whole, hollow!