really? this movie won the great prize at sundance film festival? wow, in 1995 it must have been pretty slim pickings... the film is a story about three irish brothers who are trying to deal with love and religion. the oldest brother is married and contemplating cheating on his wife, the middle brother, played by the film's director and writer ed burns, doesnt want to ever get married and breaks up as soon as anything gets serious, and the youngest brother who is a strong catholic and is dating a jewish girl. the story itself is fine, the idea of trying to understand love through the worldview of faith is rich with storytelling opportunities, the problem is the acting. have you ever seen the movie 'clerks'? it ignited the indie movie scene around the same time as this one, and also has terrible acting! through out the entire film it felt like we were watching a middle school play, the actors were stilted and no where near believable. the converstations were meant to be organic and natural, but they were the exact opposite of that- every line was delivered as if they were reading it though for the first time not sure where to put the inflection or emphasis. terrible. also, whenever there is a movie about faith, i get frustrated when each and every character has some sort of revelation that faith is stupid and God is dumb. that exactly what each of the people in this film do, it changes from an authentic life choice, and instead becomes obvious that the writer has an axe to grind. i can appreciate the work that went in to it, the director financed the film himself and amazingly went from being a nobody to now being a well known actor and director. good for him, but this was not the great start that everyone seems to think it was! maybe it was better back then, but it is not at all good today.
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