Say Uncle

Review By: Stephen Snart
StephenSnart@TheCinemaSource.com

As the film starts out, we are introduced to Paul Johnson (Peter Paige), a bored telemarketer who aspires to be an artist. I incorrectly assumed that the rest of the film would develop into a poor man’s version of Garden State. And to be sure, there are a few similarities between the two films: mainly the narcissism with which writer/director/star Paige films himself. However, instead of being a film about a return home and the blossoming of a nubile love interest, the film is actually an unpleasant comedy about the hilarious, feel-good subject of pedophilia!

Paul is a delusional young man who lives without any real responsibility, floating through his existence by imagining painting on peoples’ faces when they deliver bad news to him. His only sense of stability is his godson, Morgan. Why the child’s Mother, Sarah (Lisa Edelstein) would ever see fit to make him the godfather is uncertain, but as it is he makes a good playmate for the child. Unfortunately, Sarah’s husband gets a new job in Japan and the three have to pack up and move out of the country.

Paul ignores the news so that he can convince himself it isn’t true. Instead of saying goodbye, he holes up in a donut shop and eats donuts until he is kicked out at closing time. He later attempts to visit Morgan but finds the new residents living in the house. Unable to face the truth, Paul accuses the occupants of being babysitters and demands to see his godson. After calming him down, Elise (Gabrielle Union) warms to this deranged intruder with questionable ease, won over by the mediocre and quite creepy painting that he was planning to give to Morgan.

Eventually Paul accepts what happened and goes into a steady depression. Realizing that children are the only thing that makes Paul happy, his best friend and potential love interest Russell (Anthony Clark) gives him the monumentally irrational advice of simply going to a crowded playground and cavorting with random kids. Not surprisingly, this catches the attention of the children’s parents who initially are impressed by how uninhibited he is on the playground and later repulsed when they find out he isn’t a parent himself. One of the mothers, Maggie (Kathy Najimi), sees a news report on child molesters and realizes that Paul fits the description. She takes it upon herself to alert the media and the townsfolk of this potential pedophile.

Maggie is slightly more timorous than need be and viciously ruthless in branding Paul a social leper but the fact of the matter is that she has legitimate reason to be concerned. For once in my life I actually found myself relating to a character played by Kathy Najimi. Paul behaves in egregiously idiotic manner; anyone should know not to wipe sand of a little girl’s bottom or not to take a random child into a store bathroom. At the heart of the matter, Paul is ...