The Brothers McMullen *** (1995, Edward Burns, Mike McGlone, Jack Mulcahy, Maxine Bahns) – Classic Movie Review 1609

Producer-writer-director Edward Burns’s 1995 indie hit focuses on three Catholic Irish-American brothers (played by Burns, Mike McGlone and Jack Mulcahy) from Long Island. They are having women problems, with love, marriage and infidelity, and are having to live together while they sort their lives out.

Very unusually, as that isn’t its normal job, the advertising tagline is very helpful to explain the plot. ‘Jack [Mulcahy] is trying to save his marriage, Patrick [McGlone] is in a hopeless relationship, but their biggest problem is Barry [Burns]’s brotherly advice.’

The Brothers McMullen is low-key and low-budget, but it is a very nicely written and tastily acted comedy drama, with an admirable screenplay from debut writer-director-star Burns that’s reflective, credible, insightful and amusing. A hit at the 1995 London Film Festival, it perhaps requires a little bit of patience but it rewards it.

Burns, also the maker of 1996’s She’s the One (which also stars Burns, Bahns and McGlone), seemed to be a talent to watch after this one won the best picture award of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and went on to be picked up by 20th Century Fox and become a mini cinema hit.

Also featuring Maxine Bahns, Catharine Bolz, Connie Britton, Peter Johannsen, Jennifer Jostyn and Elizabeth McKay.

This is part of Burns’s Long Island trilogy that also includes She’s the One and No Looking Back.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1609

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