Edward Burns burst onto the scene in 1995 with
The Brothers McMullen, a genuine Sundance success story that was shot on
a budget of $25,000 with cameras on surreptitious loan, as the story goes, from
his day gig at Entertainment Tonight or another one of those syndicated
tele-mag shows. He subsequently landed Cameron
Diaz, Jennifer Aniston, Heather Graham and Brittany Murphy for other early movies, then segued into
acting in studio projects, including Saving Private Ryan and, gulp,
Life or Something Like It. Burns’ bread and butter, though, has always
remained flitting tales of romantic nervousness and blue collar ennui set
amongst beer-swilling Irish Catholics, and so it continues with The
Groomsmen, his latest film.
The movie tells the story of a reunited group of lifelong suburban New York
pals — Paulie (Burns), older brother Jimbo (Donal
Logue), irrepressible cousin Mike (Jay Mohr), family man bar owner Dez
(Matthew Lillard) and T.C. (John Leguizamo) — who all gather in advance of
Paulie’s impending marriage to his pregnant fiancée, Sue (the aforementioned Murphy). All manner of would-coulda-shoulda
secrets, frustrations and resentments are trotted out and dissected, with each
character searching for their own sort of settlement.
If blithely tossed about $20 bills are the currency of early John Grisham (and anyone
who’s read The Firm knows what I’m talking about), tall cold ones are the
narrative crutch of Burns’ oeuvre; there’s never been a substantive male
conversation that didn’t revolve around and/or involve beer in his screen world.
In The Groomsmen we have to wait all the way until the second
scene of the movie, but then, soon enough, characters are swigging whilst
picking up one another from the airport, fishing, eating, reminiscing… you get
the picture.
A snapshot of thirtysomething reticence, the movie is all very familiar,
both in general and when placed up against Burns’ other work. But it’s also
decently acted, giving most of its male cast against-type roles to play around
with, and Mohr plenty of scenery to chew. Burns further indulges this with
longer set-piece takes and wide shots, providing an easy-to-swallow answer for viewers who’ve
wondered where The Brothers McMullen’s neo-masculine ambivalence has gone
in the past decade. (Bauer Martinez, R, 98 mins.)
Saw this movie last night. I agree with the movie review. I also watch directors commentary, and have to tell you Edward, it’s not just “17 year old girls, who may have some kind of agenda” who object to seeing strip club scenes in a movie. I know most men are fine with it, O.K. I am no prude, but it doesn’t add to my enjoyment of a movie to have to look through some stripper to see and hear the story line, which could have been in any other bar scene as easily (showing the character is going down hill). Are you thinking stripping is just like any other job for a woman? How about your wife, mother, daughter, O.K. for them too?