I’ve been a fan of Ed Burns ever since his directing
debut ‘THE BROTHERS MCMULLAN’ some 16 + years ago (it picked up the SUNDANCE GRAND JURY AWARD). The small slew of movies
that he has written/directed and starred in since them have established him as
a kind of an Irish/American Woody Allen, but without any the hand ringing angst or caustic sarcasm. Burn’s endearing
and refreshing stories about family lives in his own community (always peppered
with references to Long Island where he grew up) that he insists in shooting on
minute budgets have not always met with ether critical or commercial success
(this one went straight to VOD) but I find them extremely watchable.
The newlyweds in the title are not that young. Buzzy is in his early 40’s, and Kate is her
30’s and both have been married before.
Buzzy is a personal trainer and Kate is the manager at a chic Manhattan
restaurant so they think that as they will spend such little time together,
they have a better than average chance of making their new marriage work. It's a concept they raise in the weekly
dinner they have with Kate’s sister and her husband who’s shotgun marriage has
survived 18 years to date but is teetering on a very sharp edge.
One day when Buzzy is at work, his very flaky half sister Linda unexpected
flies in from LA and expects her new sister in law (who wasn’t even aware of
her existence) to feed her and put her up for an indefinite period. Linda’s plans are as loose as her morals and
she helps herself to Kate’s expensive coat to go meet her ex boyfriend to
persuade him that he has made a bad mistake in dumping her and marrying someone
else. He disagrees, so a drunken Linda picks up the nearest man in the Bar and drags him back home at 5 am and Buzzy, thinking
the apartment is being burgled, discovers her legs akimbo making out on the
kitchen countertops. Oh yes, she has lost
the expensive coat too.
Her behavior gets worse, especially when she meets Kate’s
very broke ex husband who comes around once in awhile to ‘borrow’ money off
her. This time instead of getting cash
he gets laid.
Meanwhile Kate’s sister’s bitterness and anger (at
life and her husband) explodes and so she also comes cap in hand to Kate’s apartment demanding to be fed and sheltered and having a shoulder to cry on.
It's a test of the new marriage to see if it can survive
all the outside pressures of their very unbalanced and deeply unhappy and troubled
relatives who selfishly want Kate and Buzzy to be as miserable as them.
Tightly written and very well acted this rather
engaging drama shows that even the smart Tribeca crowd can succed at having a
happy relationship after all. Well, a couple of them at least.
★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★
