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Amazon.co.uk Review
Edward Burns's debut film as an actor-director, The Brothers McMullen, makes a virtue of its limited budget in the same way John Sayles's The Return of the Secaucus 7 did in 1980. Stuck with limited technical means, Burns wisely puts his energies into a sophisticated story, knowing an audience couldn't care less about lighting problems if they're caught up in a terrific, character-driven movie with good actors. The tale concerns three adult brothers (Burns, Jack Mulcahy, Mike McGlone) whose complications in love and problems with commitment are rooted in their common experiences in a violent, loveless family. Burns has a hang- loose style that keeps the film from getting drunk on intense drama. He sets up the emotional backdrop and lets the characters' lives speak for themselves. Moreover, this is a filmmaker who enjoys life too much to spread any more misery; Burns delights as much in the things that aren't necessarily good for people--illicit lovers, castration anxiety, too much time with one's family, too much beer--as those things that are. The results are frequently very funny. --Tom Keogh
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This is the film that brought Edward Burns to everyone's attention and rightly so. If you want one of the standard glossy romantic films or a drama filled with special effects that seem to be the norm these days then this is not it. But if you want a film that is refreshingly different then this defintely the best. It is well written and well acted. It may not be big budget but I can't say I even noticed, I was too busy watching as the three brothers struggle to make sense of their confused lives and relationships. You'll laugh and relate as Ed Burns takes the ordinary things in life and injects reality and humour which is often missing from current films. This film is funny, charming, dramatic and touching. In a word. Fantastic.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
With this debut Film Ed Burns took hollywood by the scruff off the neck and showed them how to make a male romantic comedy. The struggle between the three brothers to make sense of their turbulent childhood is more confused as they try to make sense of their own lives and the repecussions their father has had on them. all of the characters give you something to like about them even the whiney patrick character. if you come from an irish upbringing this will strike a chord or two. Burns makes a superb debut film which is more remarkable as the budget was non existent, but the writing, directing and acting is all superb a worthy winner at the sundance film festival!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I heard a lot about this movie and what I heard was so good, that finally I decided to watch it. And I do not regret it, but I must confess I was a little disappointed, because this movie is really less good than its fame.
First let's begin with the good points. This is a definitely not-Hollywoodian film (a very small budget, mostly unknown actors, it is almost totally dialog based, etc.) and so it is a welcome change from the usual product available on the DVD market. Many dialogs are really funny and intelligent. One of the girls in the movie is really a delight to watch. All the adultery story is very well shown and the conclusion can be only one - cheating is ugly. Simply ugly. Finally, the general tone is optimistic and nice, this is not a gloomy European-like cinema.
But there are also weaker points. The less welcome is the usual Catholic bashing - somebody called the anticatholicism the last racism still respectable, and this movie is another good example of it. In the adultery story we can not really understand WHY the man is so easily cheating on his wife - it is totally contradictory to the opening scene of the movie... Another brother, looking to avoid a marriage he doesn't want, finds exactly at that moment a girl who is in love with him since high school...
The last of the three brothers treats his girlfriend (the most attractive woman in the movie) with a mixture of passion, contempt, distance and cowardice; and when after the ultimate insult they break, she let him come back ten minutes later, without one word of apology... which is a little bit hard to believe. Sorry people, that is not like women work - at least not in this galaxy.
To conclude, this is a nice and smart movie you will not regret watching, but better do not expect a great masterpiece.
First let's begin with the good points. This is a definitely not-Hollywoodian film (a very small budget, mostly unknown actors, it is almost totally dialog based, etc.) and so it is a welcome change from the usual product available on the DVD market. Many dialogs are really funny and intelligent. One of the girls in the movie is really a delight to watch. All the adultery story is very well shown and the conclusion can be only one - cheating is ugly. Simply ugly. Finally, the general tone is optimistic and nice, this is not a gloomy European-like cinema.
But there are also weaker points. The less welcome is the usual Catholic bashing - somebody called the anticatholicism the last racism still respectable, and this movie is another good example of it. In the adultery story we can not really understand WHY the man is so easily cheating on his wife - it is totally contradictory to the opening scene of the movie... Another brother, looking to avoid a marriage he doesn't want, finds exactly at that moment a girl who is in love with him since high school...
The last of the three brothers treats his girlfriend (the most attractive woman in the movie) with a mixture of passion, contempt, distance and cowardice; and when after the ultimate insult they break, she let him come back ten minutes later, without one word of apology... which is a little bit hard to believe. Sorry people, that is not like women work - at least not in this galaxy.
To conclude, this is a nice and smart movie you will not regret watching, but better do not expect a great masterpiece.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Understandably Average.
I bought this film because it's a classic example of a low budget film that did really well.
You do get carried along with the characters and the plot moves pretty... Read more
You do get carried along with the characters and the plot moves pretty... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Phil
Dont Bother
Ive just sat through this mess of a film and can quite honestly say this was the most poorly acted, boring film Ive watched in ages. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2007 by D. Stanford
A Dull And Lifeless Drama
I had heard about this movie as it received a lot of critical praise. I finally got the chance to watch it, but was not impressed. Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2002
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