The Brothers McMullen

The Brothers McMullen

The Brothers McMullen

The Brothers McMullen

A little rough around the edges, but, hey! So are Jack, Barry, and Patrick, the Brothers McMullen: three young Irish-American guys whose dad stopped abusing them only when he fortunately died while mom still had enough of her looks to go back to the Auld Sod and find the one boy she'd truly loved but foolishly didn't marry all those years ago. It begins to look as if love's just as cruel for her three sons, but stick around--maybe things will work out, and maybe not. Edward Burns plays Barry so real he could have been your brother. He also writes, directs, produces, and maybe cleans the port-a-pots. Check it out!

I am a man who is of Irish decent, has an older brother who I am still close with but used to fight with (physically) constantly, and grew up in the Northeast, so I felt more of a familiarity towards this film than people in other demographics. For those reasons alone, this film holds a special place in my movie-loving heart than others I have seen before. Having said that, you don't have to be Irish-American or even male to love this movie. Sure, it looks grainy even on DVD, but any movie fan can tell you that it's not how clear a movie is or how much it costs, but how good the characters are or the story is. For this movie, both criteria was met. Edwards Burns wrote this film brilliantly, for starters. Burns wrote himself as the funnyman, and he did a great job with that role. He has some very memorable lines, most especially the part where he's talking to his younger brother Patrick (Mike McGlone) about women's ways while using a banana. Other writers would have stooped really low with such a prop, but Burns used it metaphorically in a way that was both funny and smart. He also had great chemistry with Maxine Bahns. Of course, Burns didn't leave all the funny lines to himself. Mike McGlone is also very good as Patrick, the younger brother who uses his Catholic upbringing as an excuse not to marry his longtime girlfriend. His character is perhaps the most interesting because he's so complex and has many contradictory qualities: he loves but is afraid to commit, he's religious but abides by the rules when convenient, and he's smart but does really dumb things. Contrast that performance to his role in Burns' followup, "She's The One", and you'll see that McGlone is one of the most underrated actors working today. Of course, with the movie centering around the three brothers, not mentioning Jack Mulcahy as older brother Jack would be blasphemous. Mulcahy played a very good straight man to Burns and McGlone. The movie makes you believe in the beginning that he has everything together, but he eventually loses it. However, he does so in an understated way that seems very realistic in a lot of ways. You'd have to see the movie to find out. There's not too much else to say about the movie: it just worked! The dialogue was brilliantly written and perfectly executed by the entire cast, the situations were entirely believable, and the on-location shooting in New York was a brilliant move on Burns' part. It's as if New York was its own character. Being from New England, seeing the New York Yankees clothing some of the cast wore got under my skin a little, but I won't get too picky. Although Edward Burns got his due for this movie (Winner of Best Picture at Sundance, Two Thumbs Up from Siskel & Ebert), he hasn't really gotten the respect he deserves since this film was made. He's directed eight movies as of the date this review has been written, and my guess is that in another ten years, he will earn the same respect as Woody Allen and Albert Brooks from film critics and fans alike. He had a great start as a young independent filmmaker, and I know he'll make more good films as a director as well.

There's a ton of things wrong with this film. The acting is wooden at best. The script has holes all through it. And worst of all, the film itself looks like it was developed at a Photomat! But there's something about this film that has heart. There's something about this film's performances that has heart. It's as if each actor involved really believed in the project and wasn't just "phoning it in". I don't think that Ed Burns will ever be able to recreate the magic of this film....But he's still one up on 99% of Hollywood. This is a great movie because it works without all the polish that we're all so used to in American cinema.

I just finished watching this on TV. The story is about several weeks in the lives of three bothers. Circumstances (what they are is unimportant) have caused the two younger bachelor brothers to move in with their older married brother and his family. The script explores the relationships between three loving Irish Catholic American brothers, each with a distinctive personality, and the relationships each has with the women in their lives. It's about real love and romance (not the sappy romantic comedy type), fears of commitment, and the twists and turns these men go through in dealing with that aspect of their lives. Their Catholicism has a lot to do with the story. At one point Patrick says to his Jewish girl friend, "I go to Church every week; you go to Temple only once or twice a year." She replies, "Yes, but your religion is crazy." Although the most religious of the three, Patrick, goes against the Church's teachings in that he uses condoms; but, he worries about going to Hell should he commit other serious sin. Marriage to all of them means a life-long commitment. Their mother's life set the standard for them. She had lived 35 years in a forced, loveless marriage until her husband passed away. That freed her to go to the man she had been in love with when circumstances caused her to marry the boys' father. Abortion was out of the question, as was divorce. Ed Burns is credited with writing and directing the film and he also is very credible as the middle brother. While the entire cast made their characters seem real, the actor who in my mind stood out is Mike McGlone, who plays Patrick, the youngest brother who has a kind of altar boy personality. Perhaps Ed Burns' choice of camera angles gets some of the credit for making his performance particularly memorable, but McGlone brought something special to that part.

Spoilers herein. I suppose we should all celebrate when anyone is able to pull off a first production that doesn't embarrass. But that is faint praise, and this is pretty thin stuff. I could find no interesting element in it, save the self-reference. It is a first time screenplay about the creation of a firsttime screenplay. If not overly clever, that enfolding is especially natural here, using a subtext of the Church as the rules for plays. As with his screen avatar, Burns breaks the dogmatic rules, but only in ways that follow the popular convention. The result is a miscarriage.

* * * (3 out of 5) The Brothers McMullen Directed by: Edward Burns, 1995 Catholic guilt meets Irish-American post-grunge cynicism in this 1995 Grand Jury Prize winner of the Sundance festival. Ostensibly made by a man – and for men (count the many beers) – director/writer/actor Edward Burns nevertheless impresses in every category. At times a bit sappy, yet Burns is focused on behavior and conversations and wisely makes the most of these.

I'd heard great things about this film, especially from my Irish-American relatives. But this film is laughably bad -- even for a low-budget debut. It is utterly predictable, and the screenplay is completely flat. Major transitions in the story occur with no depth or sense of urgency: the opening scene is atrociously rushed, and do we care at all at the ending? Where did the video cover image come from?? There's nothing halfway that energetic in this film. I liked but two things about this movie: the vapid dialogue (with melodramatic subject matter)made me laugh, and there was one genuinely good line -- about sweaters. Otherwise, skip it and enjoy a good glass of Guinness instead.