Uncle Frank

After an absence of several years from the big screen, Alan Ball returns with a beautiful, though difficult, story of a middle-aged NYU literature professor (the fantastic Paul Bettany) who is living a double life. To his family from South Carolina, he is just a peculiar relative who enjoys reading and uses aftershave. To his friends from New York, his beloved Wally, and his niece Beth, the narrator of the story, he is a sensitive, empathetic, somewhat shy man who still has to hide who he really is from his loved ones. It’s America in the late 1960s; the struggle for equality for minorities is still in its infancy, and real changes in relation to the LGBT community will have to wait decades longer. Meanwhile, the eponymous Uncle Frank is a kind of idol and mentor to Beth, because he is the only one who truly listens to her and who really wants to know what a young person thinks and feels on the threshold of adulthood. This is an extraordinarily sensitive and subtle story, even if the times and the narrow-minded beliefs of one’s loved ones can be frustrating.