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Tuesday, 15 August 2006 01:03 |
But perhaps Burns, now married and a veteran actor on the sets of other people's movies, has grown up. There is a level of maturity we haven't seen before in his films, and the characters feel fresher, less fictional, possibly drawn from his own life. As a bonus, by recruiting Brittany Murphy, Donal Logue, John Leguizamo, Jay Mohr and Matthew Lillard to play alongside him, Burns has pulled together a strong ensemble cast.
The film will still need strong marketing and promotion to get people into seats. Wedding themes have proven strong draws in recent comedies, but this is a more realistic and heartfelt film than, say, "Wedding Crashers." The film needs to attract an over-25 crowd to become a hit in specialty venues.
Burns places his story in City Island, that surprising enclave of New England in the heart of the Bronx. Here a small-town feel prevails, where guys can walk unsteadily down the middle of a street after the bars close without neighbors caring because everyone knows who they are.
In this homey, middle-class environment, Paulie (Burns) should be sitting pretty. He is about to marry his loving fiancee, Sue (Murphy), with whom he lives in a comfy old house. And they are about to have a child. Instead, Paulie gets the feeling he is walking off a gangplank into unknown waters.
Not helping matters is the hugely negative attitude of his older brother, Jimbo (Logue), who when he's not having fights with his wife thinks Paulie is making the worst mistake of his life. And he's the best man! Cousin Mike (Mohr) is no help either. He still lives at home with his dad and can't sustain any intimate relationship because he has never matured beyond the mental age of 22.
The only groomsman who is helpful is Dez (Lillard), a level-headed tavern owner and father of two, who can rhapsodize at the drop of a hat on the joys of family life. The odd man out is T.C. (Leguizamo), returning home for the first time in eight years after vanishing without a trace and carrying with him a secret and Mike's favorite baseball card, the latter fact still bitterly resented by Mike.
As these thirtysomething guys do their guy things -- fishing, softball, practice for a band reunion -- all the hidden agendas, secret fears, angst over increasing responsibility and patterns of denial get shaken from their souls. That everything gets resolved so neatly is a stretch though. Burns might have left a thread or two dangling.
The best thing here is the natural acting by the ensemble. Nothing feels forced or false. Every actor knows his or her role inside out. These are realistic, believable characters in all-too-real situations that do spring up before weddings. Throw in a soundtrack of rock standards and warm homes in such a livable community, made all the more enticing by designer Dina Goldman and cinematographer William Rexer II, and you have a film that makes "feel good" respectable again.
Screenwriter-director: Edward Burns
Producers: Margot Bridger, Edward Burns, Aaron Lubin, Philippe Martinez
Executive producers: Karinne Behr, David Gorton, Walter Josten
Director of photography: William Rexer II
Production designer: Dina Goldman
Music: Robert Gary, P.T. Walkley
Costume designer: Catherine Marie Thomas
Editor: Jamie Kirkpatrick
Cast:
Paulie: Edward Burns
Sue: Brittany Murphy
Jimbo: Donal Logue
TC: John Leguizamo, Mike: Jay Mohr
Dez: Matthew Lillard
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