Thirty years after โThe Brothers McMullen,โ the writer, director, and actor Edward Burns looks preserved in amber โ his hair and beard have some silver, but at 58 heโs still lean and handsome in that prince-of-the-working-class Irish-American way. And itโs not just Burns whoโs more or less unchanged; so is his filmmaking style. โFinneganโs Foursomeโ is his 16th feature, and heโs still doing that shaggy-likable, spiky-quaint, semi-low-budget Edward Burns dramedy thing โ the script thatโs talky and kind of funny, though in a way that often sounds like a script; the camerawork that never strays too far from the functional; the acting that hovers between lively and broad. The style Burns works in is now closer to television than movies, and given that โFinneganโs Foursomeโ is getting a streaming release (starting today), you could say itโs a minor indie movie that has found its rightful home.
Itโs a sports comedy, about golf and Ireland and family conundrums (it would be overstating it to call them demons), and a key thing that might put you in the audience demo for it is if you happen to be a serious golfer. Itโs a movie spun out of the love of the game. Burns, who first shows up in a samurai man-bun, plays Freddy Finnegan, a wealthy clothing entrepreneur who seems to have a happy and settled life, except that heโs got anger-management issues, all stemming from his rivalrous relationship with his irascible Irish father, Jack (Ian McElhinney).
At first, we think the movie is going to be about these two facing off. Jack, at his home in South Carolina (he came over from the old country in 1959), is hosting the latest edition of the Finneganโs Cup โ an annual golfing competition in which four members of the family face off against one another, mostly as an excuse for Jack, a retired golf instructor, to tell his old jokes and stories and reminisce about the days when he was a good enough to rub shoulders with the Big 3 (Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player).
Heโs a blustery egomaniac, though he strikes us as a warm-hearted one. And Freddy, of course, resents the hell out of him. But what we think are going to be the fireworks between these two come to a halt when one of the players hits a hole in one and Jack keels over in shock, dead of a heart attack.
The family now has to scatter Jackโs ashes in the four locations he has chosen in Ireland (two of them are golf courses). And thatโs an excuse for Freddy, who resents his da even in death; his more benign older brother, Teddy (Brian dโArcy James), a novelist who has been suffering from writerโs block; Freddyโs musician son, Frankie (Brian Muller), whom he treats nearly as cavalierly as his father treated him; and Teddyโs adult daughter, Marie (Erica Hernandez), to take a weekโs vacation in Ireland, where theyโll play out the Finneganโs Cup at a handful of fabled golf courses, smacking around some home truths along with the ball.
Thereโs plenty of on-the-nose dialogue (โHis dying wish was to get us all back here to Irelandโ), as well as cornball boasting (โItโs not about the clubs, little brother, itโs about the man whoโs swinginโ โemโ) and generic braggadocio (โI believe that is what you call an eagle!โ). Freddy and Teddy never stop making side bets and busting each otherโs chops, mostly about who has the better golf game, this being the locker-room form of brotherly love. If the family tension simmers, itโs mostly because Freddy and Teddy have opposite feelings about their father. Listening to their back-and-forth taunts, Marie says, โIโm sorry, so this entire trip is nothing but constant ball-busting?โ Swap in โmovieโ for โtrip,โ and youโve got an idea of โFinneganโs Foursome,โ though you should also toss in Frankie doing his cringe mock-sports-announcer banter.
โFinneganโs Foursomeโ is structured as a sports movie, and Burns, working with the cinematographer Jeff Muhlstock, connects you to the geometric majesty of the links. But when you watch a film like โTin Cup,โ part of the thrill is that you want to see the Kevin Costner hero win; thatโs the dramatic Zen of a sports film. Watching โFinneganโs Foursome,โ weโre not overly invested in whether Edward Burnsโ entitled a-hole gets a winning golf score over his novelist brother.
Thereโs a touching scene where three of the characters sing โThe Parting Glassโ at a pub. But hereโs how โFinneganโs Foursomeโ is a bit soft. The movie is about Freddy coming around to see that his da really did love him, and that he wasnโt such a bad guy (he gave him the love of golf, after all). But the reason we readily buy this is that itโs so apparent from the outset. Jackโs big crime? Being away โat the officeโ (i.e., the golf course) too much. As ultimate sins of parents go, itโs kind of a dated sin. You want to say to Freddy, โStop whining.โ Especially because the Jack we see, in his competitive Irish way, had a lot of spirit; he was no ogre. Of course, he also tried to โget into Freddyโs headโ on the golf course, but thatโs kind of a privileged problem. Itโs Freddy who needs to dismantle the ogre of resentment in himself, and thatโs not quite a movie โ thatโs therapy.
The blithe and likable โThe Brothers McMullenโ won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and went on to have a healthy theatrical life, launching Burnsโ career as a homespun auteur โ at the time, he almost seemed like the shoestring Irish-American answer to Woody Allen. I was a fan of the early Burns films (especially โSheโs the One,โ his 1996 crossover movie, costarring Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz), but his moment in the spotlight didnโt last long. After crossing over, he kind of crossed back, retreating into the not-fully-on-the-radar indie wilderness. Thatโs where he has remained, and watching โFinneganโs Foursomeโ you see why: Heโs trying to stay true to his world (all the Irish chop-busting and piss-taking), but he hasnโt grown as a filmmaker. Then again, maybe thatโs not so important. He doesnโt hit long drives, but by the end of โFinneganโs Foursomeโ the ball is in the cup.
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