The Groomsmen
The Groomsmen is the new film from writer/director Edward Burns. I saw this film as a preview and it took me a while to get into it. At the start of the film I didn't think much of it but as the film went on it grew on me.
The story takes place in a blue collar neighborhood in City Island. Paulie (played by Burns) is getting married in a few days to his pregnant girlfriend Sue (Brittany Murphy). To say that he has butterflies in his stomach is an understatement. The center of the story revolves around Paulie and the relationship between him and his Groomsmen. Paulie's brother (Donal Logue) has marriage problems, job problems and drinking problems. In addition to all of this, he is quite overweight. He is jealous of Paulie's success as a writer and the fact that Paulie and Sue are having a baby while he and his wife can't seem to conceive. Paulie's cousin Mike (Jay Mohr) lives with his father and works in his father's business. He is trying to win back his ex-girlfriend but without any success. T.J. (John Leguizamo) comes back into town for the wedding after being gone for eight years. Mike is fuming at T.J. because T.J. left town with Mike's favorite baseball card. Later on we find out T.J.'s big secret, which is the reason he left town all those years ago. Matthew Lilliard plays another friend of Paulie's but we don't find out much about
him except that he has two sons that he loves and that he works in a bar.
The film is about friendship, family and responsibility. All of these men are in their 30s but there is a certain level of immaturity about them. They just want to stay little boys. The film has a great deal of warmth, which is something that I like. I also like the fact that Burns makes good use of his Irish ethnicity. For the most part, I like the way the film captured City Island. It is only in the scene where they are playing soccer that the shots could have been sharper. The script is not complicated and you don't have to wrack your brain to figure out what is going on (I was not at all surprised by T.J.'s big secret). Burns is appealing but he is not a great actor. But Logue, Leguizamo and Mohr all give good performances. There is little character development given to the women in this film. They are just accessories for the men. This is by no means a great film. But, it is a pleasant slice of life and I think that it is a good thing that Burns is making films about blue collar guys. Very few American filmmakers focus on their lives and I give him credit for doing that.
The story takes place in a blue collar neighborhood in City Island. Paulie (played by Burns) is getting married in a few days to his pregnant girlfriend Sue (Brittany Murphy). To say that he has butterflies in his stomach is an understatement. The center of the story revolves around Paulie and the relationship between him and his Groomsmen. Paulie's brother (Donal Logue) has marriage problems, job problems and drinking problems. In addition to all of this, he is quite overweight. He is jealous of Paulie's success as a writer and the fact that Paulie and Sue are having a baby while he and his wife can't seem to conceive. Paulie's cousin Mike (Jay Mohr) lives with his father and works in his father's business. He is trying to win back his ex-girlfriend but without any success. T.J. (John Leguizamo) comes back into town for the wedding after being gone for eight years. Mike is fuming at T.J. because T.J. left town with Mike's favorite baseball card. Later on we find out T.J.'s big secret, which is the reason he left town all those years ago. Matthew Lilliard plays another friend of Paulie's but we don't find out much about
him except that he has two sons that he loves and that he works in a bar.
The film is about friendship, family and responsibility. All of these men are in their 30s but there is a certain level of immaturity about them. They just want to stay little boys. The film has a great deal of warmth, which is something that I like. I also like the fact that Burns makes good use of his Irish ethnicity. For the most part, I like the way the film captured City Island. It is only in the scene where they are playing soccer that the shots could have been sharper. The script is not complicated and you don't have to wrack your brain to figure out what is going on (I was not at all surprised by T.J.'s big secret). Burns is appealing but he is not a great actor. But Logue, Leguizamo and Mohr all give good performances. There is little character development given to the women in this film. They are just accessories for the men. This is by no means a great film. But, it is a pleasant slice of life and I think that it is a good thing that Burns is making films about blue collar guys. Very few American filmmakers focus on their lives and I give him credit for doing that.
posted by Film Fanatic | 6:29 PM
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