John Ashton plays a small-town carpenter who is in trouble.
There’s a lot going on in Uncle John, an indie film set in Chicago and rural Wisconsin. A lot, and too much. Substantial tightening would improve this tasteful, well-acted but somewhat sleepy tale of office romance and heinous mayhem in the countryside.
Uncle John tells two characters’ stories, mainly in parallel. John (John Ashton) is a small-town carpenter who lives on a dairy farm. His Chicago-based nephew Ben (Alex Moffat) does production work for advertising clients. We learn in opening scenes that John has gotten himself into some very unpleasant business. We also learn that Ben is involved in a will-they-or-won’t-they flirtation with a new co-worker, Kate (Jenna Lyng). Ben and Kate embark on an impromptu road trip to Wisconsin, and suspense awaits.
I mentioned there’s too much going on. Given the nearly two-hour running time, there’s also not enough. The dialogue scenes have their charms but feel curiously underwritten. Scrolling shots of the Wisconsin sky provide interesting texture, but we see too many of them. The film’s only real charge is provided by a wild-eyed, stringy-haired loner (Ronnie Gene Blevins) who could have wandered in from a different type of murder-thriller.
