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Small budget film beautifully written By LIZ BRAUN Toronto Sun If you are not one of the lemmings (sorry, people) keen to take in this week's Hollywood blockbuster offering at the movies, what are your alternatives? So glad you asked. If small, subtle and beautifully written and acted are the sort of elements you prefer over, say, big dinosaurs or robots, consider seeing a new Canadian film called The Uncles. Why? Because it's a wonderful film, that's why, and a good story well told. The Uncles stars Chris Owens (X-Files) as John, the reluctant head of a complicated family. John has to listen to his aged mother on the subject of his getting married and having children. He has to protect his sister Celia (Tara Rosling, gobsmackingly good here), who is an adult in some ways and a child in others, and he has to try to keep his younger brother Marco (Kelly Harms) at university. John runs a restaurant. He happens to be having an affair with the daughter-in-law of his boss. She is beginning to talk about leaving her marriage to have children with John. John has rather a lot on his plate. The pursuit of the unavailable, the desire for children, the chaos (and the ever-desirable glue) that is familyÑthere is much in the way of large life issues being addressed in the deceptively simple narrative of The Uncles. Toronto local Jim Allodi is responsible for the superb script and for directing The Uncles. The performances (the cast includes Veronika Hurnik as the married academic John loves, and Dino Tavarone as the boss who regards John as a son) are uniformly terrific. Everybody is three-dimensional here, and that includes the guys throwing a ball around in the park for their 20 second scene. You'll buy every bit of dialogue. (Filmmaker Allodi is also an actor. This may have a lot to do with the performances he pulled out of his cast.) The Uncles is smart and small budget. The characters, flaws and all, are very appealing. Not much happens in the story that is too much out of the ordinary, except maybe on an emotional level, but the film's energy never flags. If you see The Uncles, expect to leave the theatre wishing the movie were longer and you could spend more time with the characters, none of whom are robots, by the way. Just so we're clear on that. |