The Family McMullen 2025 Movie Review
“The Family McMullen” released today in limited release, falters mightily in its execution. Gone are the pathos, insight and heart of the original, “The Brothers McMullen.” And now, Edward Burns delivers a sequel that rings hollow.
The root of the problem is the robotic, wooden script that reveals Burn’s paint by numbers approach. Over the course of the movie, each character runs into an old flame and you get distracted by incredulity of the scenarios. Not one, not two, but I’m counting four different characters, run into old flames and fall madly in love. Halfway into the movie, you go “Here we go again!”
2nd problem is poor acting abilities of the younger cast: Halston Sage, Bryan Fitzgerald, Juliana Canfield and Pico Alexander. Watch and listen to the wooden line reading on display. Pico Alexander delivers dialogue as if he’s reciting from a play. Halston Sage’s facial expressions and faux emotions are an eye sore to behold. Another character is doing an impression of Tony Danza and you say to yourself, “What is going on here, really? We get not one, but two awful scenes of characters doing impressions of the Goodfellas. Yikes!
Here’s the issue: In one second you have characters declaring themselves “The cold heart cynics.” Ten minutes later, they’re proposing marriage to each other. Ten minutes after that, they decide to have a friends with benefits relationship. There’s zero time given to watch these characters build, grow, ponder and learn from their decisions.
The original film, “The Brothers McMullen” showed characters facing family crisis, infidelity, ambitions of youth, abortion and the ramifications of religious duty. In “The Family McMullen” characters are older but not wiser. They casually embrace hookup culture. Burns is afraid to delve into the deeper profound issues that 30 years of life brings. His line of attack is to carbon copy moments from the original, hand it to the younger performers and throw a Hail Mary pass.
Take the exchange between Heather Graham and Stanley Tucci in Burn’s “Sidewalks of New York” from 2001. Listen and watch the interplay between these gifted actors and now watch the interplay between Halston Sage & her Tony Danza clone. My point, exactly!
Some positives: The rich, warm cinematography is wonderful on the big screen. Michael McGlone’s character rings authentic and true after 30 years. Each time he’s on the screen, you know you’re in good hands. This film could have transcended the sequel slump if McGlone’s journey could have been more prominent. We have characters that resemble “The Brothers McMullen” but feel vacant and cold. There’s no going back home, I guess.
