Five longtime friends enjoy a few days of celebratory carousing as they try to forget their adult responsibilities in this slice-of-life comedy drama from director/writer/actor Edward Burns. Paulie (Burns) is a working-class guy from Long Island who has learned that his longtime girlfriend (Brittany Murphy) is pregnant, and he decides he should do the right thing and marry her. Paulie has asked several of his best friends to stand with him at the wedding, and shortly before the big day, they get
together at a local watering hole to give Paulie a proper send-off. Over the course of a weekend, the guys knock back a lot of beer, play a little softball, swat some golf balls, head out fishing and share their thoughts, with each man having some unresolved baggage to deal with. While Paulie is excited about his upcoming marriage, he's scared of how parenthood will change his life. His older brother, Jimbo (Donal Logue), has been arguing with his wife and spending his time in topless bars, but inside he's worried about the fact his wife hasn't been able to get pregnant, and he's convinced it's his fault. Des (Matthew Lillard) is a seemingly happy husband and father, but he seems to be more interested in getting his old rock band back together than spending time with his family. Mike (Jay Mohr) wants to settle down and have kids, but he can't imagine doing so with any woman other than the girl who dumped him some time ago. And while T.C. (John Leguizamo) goes out of his way to like one of the guys, he doesn't have the nerve to tell his best friends that he's gay. The Groomsmen received its world premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Traffics in such familiar territory as sibling rivalries, generational estrangements and broken dreams. But it slowly, sometimes too slowly, connects with the viewer.
The Groomsmen may be low-cal Cassavetes or Secrets and Lies for mooks, but Burns knows his turf. The marvel is that after seven films he's still finding fresh grass.
Secure in its indie identity and wholly entertaining, The Groomsmen deserves hordes of filmgoers seeking quality alternatives to the bigger summer pictures.
Burns, without pretense or sappiness, wears a heart the size of Manhattan on his sleeve, and handles the movie's rollercoaster of emotion with immense skill.
An excellent and heartfelt comedy filled with big laughs and riventing character drama. A gem of a film from Director, Edward Burns. It`s smart, fresh, winning and real. A great film bout love, freindship, and new beginings. The all-star cast gives some of the best acting of their careers showing great comediec ablity
and dramatic sensitivity. Edwarn Burns is terrific, ones of his best performances and bests directionals features yet. Jay Mohr is outragious. John Leguizamo is excellent. Donal Louge is brilliant. Matthew Lillard is fantastic. This movie is just pure joy. A tremendously entertaining and compelling buddy movie.
"There's a difference between getting older and growing up."The Groomsmen was a pretty nice little surprise. It worked pretty well as a comedy. The drama is a little off, but not to bad that it ruins the movie as a whole. Edward Burns writes, directs and stars in this film. I'm fine wight he first two, but I wish he
wouldn't have acted in it. He's unconvincing and weak as an actor in The Groomsmen. Plus he reminds me too much of Ben Affleck. The rest of the cast was really cool though. John Lugizamo, Brittany Murphy, Matthew Lillard, Donal Logue and Jay Mohr. Obviously that cast isn't a bunch of A-listers, but it's a cool cast for a little Indie comedy.The movie is far from great. It does try to get too dramatic in portions and does get annoying every once in awhile. But for the most part I really enjoyed it. The movie centers around a group of friends during the week before one of them gets married. Secrets are revealed about each other, they fight, they drink and they learn to grow up. The story isn't groundbreaking, the relationships are nothing new; but the movie still works.The Groomsmen was a lot better then I was lead to believe. It's a fun little comedy that may try a little too hard in portions; but at least it tried. That's more then you can say about a lot of mainstream comedies.
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