THE BROTHERS MCMULLEN
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1995 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Three Irish-American brothers in a
lower middle-class neighborhood confide in each
other as they work out their personal
relationships. The writing is generally decent,
but plotting has problems. Rating: low +1 (-4 to
+4) [A spoiler comment follows the review.]
Filmmaking can be a big international industry and it can be a small cottage industry. THE BROTHERS MCMULLEN is one of the films produced in informal manner. It was made over eight months of weekends in Edward Burns's house with Burns's mother cooking for the cast and crew. Burns wrote, co-produced, directed, and acted in the film. The other producer, incidentally, was Dick Fisher who also filmed the movie and edited. The film was shot on 16-millimeter and blown up to 35- ,millimeter giving it a grainy look and making even the bright scenes seem dim.
The senior McMullen was an abusive, alcoholic, wife-beater. He died five years earlier, totally unlamented. His wife returned to Ireland to marry the man she really loved when McMullen made her pregnant. That leaves three sons, ages 22 to 33, living in the same house. Each is at a different stage of relationships with the opposite sex. Youngest son Patrick (Mike McGlone) has a Jewish girlfriend who is making plans for future with Patrick working for her father. Barry (Edward Burns) wants to remain a bachelor all his life. and Jack (Jack Mulcahy) appears happily married but is not sure he wants to take the next step and have a child. This is a family that talks and can freely criticize each other's behavior toward women. Much of the film is filled with the brothers asking each other and other people philosophical questions like "Are you better off alone than with someone who is not your soulmate?" Each seems to represent a different aspect of a group personality. Patrick, for example, is the conscience of the family. He takes his Catholicism very seriously and sees his brothers' behavior in stern, moralistic terms. But the most serious problem with the plot is in the spoiler comment at the end of the review.
Considering that this film was made the way it was, it is not surprising that there are no familiar faces in the cast, nor are any really needed. The acting is uniformly very good, indicating that Burns is already a better director than many with more experience. The continuity of the performances is all the more impressive when one considers that this is a film shot mostly in weekends and in spare time. There is not a bad performance and the presence of some actors who don't look like actors is a definite plus. There are none of the bad performances one often finds in informal productions like this one. Occasionally there is some uneven camerawork including a few disorienting extreme closeups in the middle of a scene. There are also some continuity problems.
But overall Burns has his story to tell and his characters to create and he does it in fine form. My major complaint with his script takes the form of a spoiler and so follows the review. I give this film a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
The real problem with the script of THE BROTHERS MCMULLEN is the sheer predictability of the subplots. There are three stories and each story telegraphed what was going to happen. In each case it was the simplest and most obvious conclusion to the story. Burns has to learn how to put a little bit of spin on the ball. Humorous dialogue and some characterization are nice in telling a story, but there needs to be a story to tell.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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