The Brothers McMullen (Edward Burns)

Rating: 2.5

I can't believe that this film took the grand prize at Sundance...not 
that it's bad, mind you, but it's so aggressively nondescript.  Maybe 
it's my fault for expecting every independent film to have some kind of 
an edge.  Burns, at this point, is a better actor than auteur; the other 
performances range from excellent (Mike McGlone as "the religious 
brother") to abysmal (Elizabeth McKay as "the two-dimensional vamp from 
hell").  Much of the dialogue is clumsy, and the various narrative lines 
are as predictable as those in an episode of "The Love Boat."  Still, I 
enjoyed a lot of it in spite of myself; it's certainly engaging, and it 
tackles some subjects (Catholicism, male sibling affection) that are 
rarely seen onscreen.