The Brothers McMullen (1995) * * *

Directed by:  Edward Burns

Starring:  Edward Burns, Mike McGlone, Jack Mulcahy, Connie Britton, Shari Albert, Maxine Bahns, Jennifer Jostyn,

Made on a $24,000 budget and financed by Edward Burns' credit cards, The Brothers McMullen was a darling of the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and launched Burns' career as an actor and director.    I've likened him to an Irish Catholic Woody Allen.    Burns is as perplexed by relationships as Allen, but perhaps with a little less outward angst and a more optimistic outlook.    I've admired many of Burns' films, and the genesis of their appeal is evident in The Brothers McMullen.

Burns, McGlone, and Mulcahy play Barry, Patrick, and Jack McMullen respectively.    They are three brothers who find themselves living under the same roof shortly after their alcoholic father passes and their mother moves back to Ireland with her first love.   Each has his own issues with the women in their lives.   Jack is over thirty, married to a nice schoolteacher named Molly (Britton), and their marriage appears to be normal, if not super passionate.    Jack soon develops wandering eyes for another woman and moves hesitantly into an affair with her.    Jack consummates the affair and then promises to himself during the ride home he will never do that again...until the urge occurs to do that again.

Patrick is the youngest of the three and has a girlfriend he doesn't want to marry or move in with because that would be living in sin.  His girl reveals she is pregnant and Patrick's Catholic guilt won't allow him to agree to an abortion, yet he doesn't want to marry someone he doesn't love.    Barry is the middle child, a writer with writer's block who doesn't want a relationship, until one finds him in the form of actress Audrey (Bahns) and forces Barry to reevaluate his standards.     The underlying conflicts in the brothers are caused by their relationship with the Catholic church.     They feel guilt about certain church teachings, but not others, and feel remorse over selective sins, but not necessarily all of them.  

Are the church's laws relevant for today?    Having an abortion is a sin, but contraception is also considered sinful, so one can't use contraception to prevent a pregnancy.    Of course, abstinence is the best solution for this then, no?    Yeah, right.    Patrick and Jack have the biggest moral dilemmas, while Barry has to figure himself out or risk losing Audrey.  The characters have meaningful conversations about their issues, with Barry providing an analogy comparing men to bananas.    I enjoyed the realistic dialogue, and the way the actors say it.    The Brothers McMullen has a grainy, documentary feel to it.    We feel like we are witnesses to their lives in an intimate way.

We hope the brothers can all find a way to stop fighting happiness and embrace it.    This isn't always the case with people.    People at times act against their better natures in the name of what they feel at the moment, which makes them human.    Logically, the people in The Brothers McMullen know what the right thing is, but logic tends to give way when such strong emotions threaten to overtake the brain.    The Brothers McMullen understands that and we have a perceptive, intelligent romantic comedy because of it.