The Brothers McMullen Movie Review

The Brothers McMullen (1995)

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Written by: Edward Burns
Directed by: Edward Burns
Starring: Jack Mulcahy, Michael McGlone, Edward Burns, Connie Britton, Shari Albert, Maxine Bahns, Jennifer Jostyn
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
Three Irish Catholic brothers from Long Island struggle to deal with love, marriage, and infidelity.

Verdict
This explores religion, sex, love, and guilt through three brothers. This is a true indie movie and thus the acting lacks polish and the cinematography could be better, but the dialog often feels natural and the questions this explores are intriguing.  Does that overcome the lack of polish? No, but the movie is amazing because someone did this in their free time while working a full time job.
Skip it.

Review
Ed Burns financed, produced, directed and starred in the movie during his spare time while working as a production assistant at Entertainment Tonight. A conversation with Robert Redford on the ET set led to a Sundance film festival invitation and the movie winning the grand prize.

This starts with brothers sharing beers and discussing their love lives, and the movie never strays far from that concept. Each brother is at a different stage in life. The youngest, Patrick, is just out of college and his girlfriend wants to marry. Barry is committed to bachelorhood. Jack, is the married older brother and his wife wants kids, he doesn't. 

This looks like an indie movie. It's raw but it makes it feel more like a documentary, like something real. I give Burns credit for putting this together in his free time. He put ads out for actors that were willing to work for a free lunch. It kind of shows, but again for what this movie is I'm impressed. The acting can be a bit rough and the story is more than a bit predictable with the pace slowing down. There were a few times when I hoped this would go somewhere. 

There were more than a few times where the dialog feels like something a person would say, not just fancy words on screen. There a are a lot of conversations and some of them feel authentic. Burns pulled from his own life for the plot.

I like the ideas in the movie, and I like what Burns was able to accomplish with a near zero budget, but that still doesn't make it something you need to see.