It
turns out people do not know everybody’s business in small towns. After having
visions of Hell Fire, Old Dutch set out to make amends with everyone he
wronged, but his confessions have shocked the rural community. Apparently, this
is particularly true of Ben’s Uncle John. Although we do not see how the fatal
chain of events transpired, there is no question the titular carpenter is
disposing of Dutch’s body in the opening scenes of Steven Piet’s Uncle John (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.
He
might be a murderer (manslaughter seems the more fitting charge), but John is
not a bad sort, really. In fact, he is a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy
according to Ben. As part of his pseudo-courtship of a new co-worker, the
Chicago-based web designer explains how Uncle John raised him after his mother
died and his father absconded.
As
Ben hesitantly puts the moves on Kate, we see John scramble to cover his tracks
and deflect the suspicions of Dutch’s delinquent younger brother Danny Miller. Fortunately,
the sheriff does not share Miller’s line of thinking, but he keeps popping by
at inopportune moments. However, Uncle John will really have to start
tap-dancing when Ben brings Kate home for a spur-of-the-moment visit.
At
first glance, Uncle John looks like
two completely different films—Fargo in
Wisconsin and About Last Night in
Chicago—stuck together by a mere familial connection, yet somehow Piet makes it
click. Partly that is because we get a powerful sense of how important the
characters are to each other, even when living miles apart, but there is also a
hard to define atmosphere of unease permeating the entire film. Whatever it is,
it just works.
Of
course, it is no secret how much John Ashton brings to the film as Uncle John.
Best known as Sgt. Taggart in the Beverly
Hills Cop franchise, Ashton has worked steadily in the industry for years,
but with Uncle he finally gets a
career-defining role. He flat-out knocks it out of the park with his quiet,
slow-boiling performance. At times, you can practically see the steam rising
from his head, as Uncle John struggles to keep it together. Alex Moffat and
Jenna Lyng are also charismatic and develop convincing ambiguous chemistry
together, but they would probably be the first to admit Ashton is leading this
parade.
