Diractors is an ongoing series in which Hassle writer Jack Draper examines films, new and old, whose directors are better known for their work in front of the camera.
Ed Burns has always wanted to be Woody Allen– it’s as clear as his Irish Catholic roots. His predicament is having the looks and swagger of Ben Affleck. I’ve always looked at Burns the diractor as born in the wrong generation but with the right sensibility, with Millers in Marriage being the first of his films to see me. Nevertheless, he has aged into someone making movies for grownups in movie theaters. There are complex, dramatic questions for Burns to ask as he approaches his 60s, like “Can you have it all” or “What if while you’re growing as people, you also grow apart?” Burns has such a deep love of actors and thus lets the sometimes half-baked ideas rise with the rock-solid group of actors in this ensemble, some giving career-best work. What can be reduced to “rich white people issues” has more tension and stillness that is deeply felt with the characters’ stage in life.
Millers in Marriage is the story of three siblings and their disillusioned relationships in a time when they’re all looking for more. Problems aren’t as much self destructing but waiting for permission has expired. Eve (Gretchen Mol, in a career-best performance), Maggie (Julianna Margulies), and Andy (Burns) are the Millers, each asking the similar question of “Is this as good as it gets,” with various levels of success to get an answer. Eve tries to ease away from her marriage to alcoholic and unhappy Scott (Patrick Wilson), who takes the chance to start a family. Eve stops her music career, but finds someone more her speed in Paco (Paco Lorenzo) when he comes to interview her. Maggie sees her husband Nick (Campbell Scott) has provided nothing of worth and happiness lately, and has an affair with Dennis (Brian d’Arcy James), which brings her more fulfillment even when she’s creatively happier finishing her novel. Andy has begun a new relationship with Renee (Minnie Driver, a reason for seeing the movie) while facing commitment issues after separating from Tina (Morena Baccarin).
That’s a lot to juggle without feeling contrived or repetitive. Burns pulls it off cleanly, mostly. His script is lifeless setting up these character dynamics, opting for stillness and quiet in the film atmosphere which creates fewer moments. Here, the subtext is the text with something that Burns is missing: humor. The movie doesn’t need to be a comedy, but not having fun with itself at first gives more of a task of being dramatically interesting in the second half. Burns does make a better movie dramaturgically when more conflicts are confronted, like moments of Nick giving his opinion on Maggie’s novel or Andy stubbornly insisting to Eve that he’s fine after having “one beer.” Maggie in particular is the most stagnant in life; Nick is incredibly absent, but he is not unlikeable. They’re empty nesters with a house so much bigger than the two of them that it’s essentially haunted. Burns has a grasp better on the two of them than his own arc, which he gives less significance.
Burns is in a comfortable zone here, making the character-driven films he has a love for with mixing in anxieties of being middle age. At last year’s TIFF, he said he considers Millers to be best film he has written, yet as I make it through a few more of his movies I’ll be surprised to find anything more confident than this. Little did I know this was Burns’ 14th film; my guess before realizing this was he had a filmography half this, since he was more of an actor to me than a director. Judging the size of the acting to directing filmography, Burns directs himself as much as he acts in other people’s films. It’s an interesting approach to your career to reach for the heights of Woody Allen or John Cassavetes, yet he has seemingly never made his crowning achievement. This comfortable zone is the key for Ed Burns; it’s not to be ridiculed but to be admired he found it, with Millers showing him growing as a triple threat. Nice to see a Purple Violets reunion with him and Patrick Wilson, who was given the chance to be a real dick and entirely unlikeable, with Burns even going to a vulnerable place of seeing a bit of himself in Scott whole never grew up.
Millers in Marriage
2025
dir. Edward Burns
117 min.
Available digitally and in select theaters Friday, 2/21
