`SAY UNCLE' HAS NO RELATION TO COMEDY.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

Peter Paige's ``Say Uncle'' aims to be a dark comedy about the dangers of preconceived ideas, but the movie plays as a broad cartoon that speaks to the peril of having no ideas as a filmmaker.

The movie follows Paul (Paige, best-known for his work on ``Queer As Folk''), a self-absorbed, reality-challenged gay man whose world is shattered when his best friends move to Japan, taking the joy of Paul's life, his 2-year-old godson, halfway across the world with them.

Paul regroups and attempts to find another child to shower with love.

He hits the neighborhood playground, asking children he meets to call him ``Uncle Paul,'' brushing the sand off their backsides when they fall down. At first, the playground moms rejoice at the sudden appearance of this ``Superman,'' but when they learn that Paul has no kids of his own and is just there to play, one mom (Kathy Najimy) becomes suspicious and launches a maniacal crusade to ``out'' Paul as a child molester.

Paige, to his credit, acknowledges the inappropriateness of Paul's naive behavior, but it's clear where his sympathies lie, given how monstrously Najimy and her fruit-snack-packing posse of moms are portrayed. The film, which Paige wrote, directed and produced, unsteadily veers between comedy and pathos, ultimately unleashing a third-act bombshell that is supposed to explain Paul's antic but really just serves as a reminder of the shakiness of the material's psychological underpinnings.

Occasionally, Paige hits on something that connects -- the indifference Paul, as a man, finds when applying for a job in a baby boutique, the subtle condescension that fathers, no matter their sexual orientation, sometimes receive from stay-at-home moms. But such subtle notes are rare in a blown-up TV movie that's positively frantic to get across the idea that gay men are really, really, really not scary -- even ones without the common sense to understand that inviting a child into his apartment without the parents' knowledge or permission is not a particularly good idea.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

[e-mail]

SAY UNCLE - One and one half stars

(R: language)

Starring: Peter Paige, Kathy Najimy.

Director: Peter Paige.

Running time: 1 hr. 30 min.

Playing: Laemmle Sunset 5 in West Hollywood.

In a nutshell: Unsteady comedy about a reality-challenged, child-focused gay man who's accused of being a child molester. Not funny, rarely observant and bereft of ideas.

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Photo:

``Say Uncle'' stars Peter Paige as a gay man who likes to hang out with kids at the playground in his spare time.