The Brothers McMullen

The Brothers McMullen
by Edward Burns

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DVD Reviews of The Brothers McMullen

DVD Review: If You Grew Up Irish-Catholic, You Will Be Intrigued
Summary: 3 Stars

The oldest brother is a high school basketball coach, but, oddly, he's very non-jock like. He's somewhat sensitive and a little thoughtful for crying out loud! And he doesn't drink enough beer for a coach. He is friends with another woman who has the serious hots for him, but he keeps turning her down out of respect for his marriage.

Middle brother was engaged to a Jewish girl, but it broke up due to his own moral and emotional conflicts. Later on, he then picks up an old friendship with the Irish-American girl that grew up next door. She repairs cars in the backyard, drinks beer like the guys and has big hair to remind you she's a girl. I liked her better anyway.

The youngest brother is the most likable. He hasn't been a practicing Catholic since junior high; yet, he considers himself a believer. His charismatic crudeness and way of treating woman remind me of the characters Sean Penn plays, but this guy's got better personality and looks. Both older brothers tell him he drinks too much, but I'd say he drinks just the right amount for his age and station in life! He doesn't seem sexually repressed to me, but his slightly overplayed male bluster and beer drinking might suggest to a shrink that he's keeping his true feelings on ice.

At first glance I thought the McMullen family didn't typify mine--the brothers seem like libertines by comparison! But they call movies and plays drama because they're supposed to dramatize. I think the characters act out things that all of us have thought, felt, wished we'd done, experienced or observed, either consciously or unconsciously. The incongruity of values and lifestyle between the conventional straight-laced oldest brother and the carousing youngest brother was interesting. Unlike most men and unlike most Irish-Catholics, the brothers talk about all their conflicts with each other and their wives and girl friends (Otherwise, there wouldn't be a movie!).

There's some funny, typically Catholic hypocrisy. Middle brother is sleeping with his Jewish girlfriend. When they go looking for an apartment together, he decides they can't live together before marriage because he's Catholic. In another scene, they are in bed together having hank-panky and he tells her they shouldn't be using contraceptives because he's Catholic. Oops. I didn't use the word sex or intercourse. Does that make me sexually repressed?

Apparently, if a woman pursues a man and he's attracted to her, but he chooses to remain faithful to his wife, Hollywood considers that sexually repressed. And if a person is torn between what they've been taught is right and what their passions command, that is considered sexually repressed. I'd call it being a normal human being. I don't think the movie makers were trying to portray the youngest brother as liberated; rather, I think they were trying to portray him as another kind of emotional cripple, but I'm on shaky ground here.

I thought the brothers did O.K. in their relationships to others, but I was a little disappointed that none of the brothers lacked the intellectual depth and sophistication to sort out and resolve their inner conflicts. This is the real tragedy.

Unfortunately, the movie barely touches on the woman's point of view. It would make a great sequel.

Description of The Brothers McMullen