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Brothers and gangsters
By Jocelyn Newmarch
Posted Fri, 22 Nov 2002
The story is simple. Francis Sullivan, reformed gangster and Irish-American Catholic, has been clean for the three years following the supposed death of his younger brother Sean. Sean, however, is very much alive, and when he’s spotted in a pub one night a lot of people are very interested in whether he’s dead or not — and in making damn sure that he stays dead this time. So Francis has to act quickly to outwit the bad guys and get his brother out of town.
Hobbit-boy Elijah Wood is spectacularly miscast and badly directed as the younger brother Sean, and delivers a performance that is almost painful in its petulance and naivete. The supposedly 21-year-old Sean behaves more like a 14-year-old, and casting Wood as Rosario Dawson’s husband and Edward Burns’ brother is a tough sell at the best of times.
To be fair, he doesn’t have a lot to work with, and I’m inclined to lay the blame for his performance squarely at the door of writer-director Edward Burns.
Written, directed, produced, and, yes, starring Edward Burns as a hulking, unshaven bartender, the film is a giant ego-fest. Burns’ performance is not bad per se — it’s just ill-suited to the character.
Ed Burns is way too involved with this baby — at the very least, he should have hired another lead actor and scriptwriter and confined himself to being behind the camera.
The film consistently fails to achieve any feeling of suspense or urgency, which one would suppose to be a prerequisite for a crime thriller, but apparently this is not so. In fact I spent most of the time wondering when the action was going to start.
The Catholic imagery of the film — all the action takes place on Ash Wednesday, and everybody walks around with ash on their foreheads — feels tacked on and overdone, an attempt to lend the film a feeling of depth and profundity which it doesn’t in fact possess, a shortcut to symbolism.
Which is a pity because, with better, more thoughtful use of the religious symbolism, this film could have become something quite beautiful.
The script could also have done with a bit of doctoring, as this excerpt shows:
Sean: So what did you and Dad do together?
Francis: Oh, we used to kill people.
Sean (gasp of horror): Really? You killed people?
Now this must be breathtaking naivete in anyone’s book, especially as Sean was very well aware of the nature of his family’s business and why everybody is so eager to make sure he’s dead.
Not only are the lines lame, but the plot is illogical. A thug looking for Sean manages to swipe his wallet, leading to the film’s denoument, but no one bothers to explain why a man who’s been in hiding for three years and pretending to be dead would still carry around his ID and driver’s licence. (On the other hand one could argue that this is in keeping with Sean’s moronic tendencies which are on display throughout the film).
The brooding, chiaroscuro-toned cinematography is appropriately understated and suits the film’s atmosphere without drawing too much attention to itself. The film also has a very good sense of place — it’s set in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, in 1983, and the location is fittingly grimy. 'Ash Wednesday’s' ending is surprisingly good — one element where many films fail to satisfy.
Performances are adequate if not always convincing, with the exception of Wood who has already been singled out.
What the international critics are saying:
"There ought to be a directing license, so that Ed Burns can have his revoked."
- Mark Olsen, L.A. WEEKLY
"Burns' fifth beer-soaked film feels in almost every possible way - from the writing and direction to the soggy performances - tossed off."
- Brent Simon, ENTERTAINMENT TODAY
"This may be Burns's strongest film since The Brothers McMullen."
- Maitland McDonagh, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE
"This time Mr. Burns
is trying something in the Martin Scorsese street-realist mode, but his self-regarding sentimentality trips him up again."
- Dave Kehr, NEW YORK TIMES
"For all its brooding quality, Ash Wednesday is suspenseful and ultimately unpredictable, with a sterling ensemble cast."
- Kevin Thomas, LOS ANGELES TIMES
"Despite the authenticity of the trappings, the film is overblown in its plotting, hackneyed in its dialogue and anachronistic in its style."
- Frank Scheck, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
