She's The One Chad'z rating: *** (out of 4 = good) 1996, R, 97 minutes [1 hour, 37 minutes] [romantic comedy] starring: Edward Burns (Mickey Fitzpatrick), Mike McGlone (Francis Fitzpatrick), Maxine Bahns (Hope), John Mahoney (Mr. Fitzpatrick), produced by Edward Burns, Ted Hope, James Schamus, written and directed by Edward Burns.
If I had known "She's The One" is about a love triangle between two brothers and their [estranged] lovers I probably would have seen it as just another soap opera disguised as a movie. But then again, that's probably why I found the film to be enjoyable. It knows it's essentially a soap opera but because it's told realistically with a fair amount of charm and humor it works.
This is the second film by GenXer Edward Burns who also writes, produces, and stars here the same as his first feature "The Brothers McMullen." In the spirit of "Brothers," this film works in the same manner by starting out simple but gradually becoming more complex by developing characters and multiple, overlapping storylines which all make for interesting, offbeat themes.
First we meet the brothers (and father) Fitzpatrick. Mickey (Burns) is the older brother who drives a cab for a living but doesn't care about his income because he's happy. Francis (McGlone) is the younger brother who makes lots of money but isn't exactly happy because he's cheating on his wife and doesn't know what to do. Mr. Fitzpatrick (Mahoney) is the old Irish dad who tells his sons to do whatever makes them happy but make sure they stay close to the family. Basically, these guys make up a "close-knit" movie family.
One day Mickey picks up a woman named Hope (Bahns) in his cab. She has to take a plane from New York City to New Orleans but she's afraid of flying and asks if Mickey would drive her instead. Now this is your generic Meet Cute scene, but there isn't much chemistry between Burns and Bahns, which is surprising since the two are a couple in reality. A few scenes later we find they were married on the road (kind of a crash-course version of "Before Sunrise" I guess).
Meanwhile, we've gotten to know Francis who's a real Scrooge-like character. He's having an affair with a sexy blonde named Heather (Cameron Diaz), who, not coincidentally, used to be engaged to Mickey (and who is also fooling around with others besides Francis and has a torrid past). Back home, Francis's wife Carol (Jennifer Aniston) complains about their lack of a sex life, and threatens to use alternative measures for pleasure (in one of the funniest, wittiest discussions about masturbation I've ever seen).
Most of the film is a rather complicated story of romance between all the characters, both past and present. Certain things happened in the past that eventually affect the continuing plot, and it's interesting to watch the manner in which Burns is able to make everything stay in synch and seem so breezy. We get subplots of secrets and lies of affairs and passion between just a few characters, but you never doubt the plausibility of it all.
Maybe the instant romance between Mickey and Hope was hard to swallow, but at least we get some good scenes of interaction and believable dialogue which in turn push the plot along. Unlike other independent filmmakers like Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater, Burns is not a master of dialogue, but his character never talk and act like movie characters. The film doesn't try to become an overly dramatic love story either, it just puts very down-to-Earth characters in situations you'd only see in the movies. Sometimes it seems strange but that's pretty much the point.
In retrospect, I realize "She's The One" doesn't have the charm of "The Brothers McMullen," but it does deliver a good theme about how serious and important modern relationships (especially marriage) really are. It works for me because it manages to be at least entertaining despite all the things it has going against it.
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