In the films and television shows he’s made as a writer-director, Edward Burns has never not made things personal, but retaining the same level of creative control that he had on his breakthrough “The Brothers McMullen” has often required working on modest budgets and with younger casts and crews, naturally making the work itself move farther away from who he is now. In a marketplace starved of thoughtful adult dramas, that makes his return to center stage in “Millers in Marriage” a welcome one, as Burns mines territory he’s familiar with after turning 50.
“All I’m looking for is a stable relationship with a woman my own age,” Burns’ character Andy can be heard telling his new girlfriend Renee (Minnie Driver), putting her at ease when she worries he might want kids. They’re at a summer home that Renee got in a divorce, and by the standards of “Millers in Marriage,” he couldn’t have said anything more romantic to her when all people want is comfort.
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Andy wasn’t the one who ended his own 15-year marriage recently, but he certainly can be grateful it happened when leaving the tempestuous Tina (Morena Baccarin) meant less stress in his life. And if he wants to be reminded, he needs only get on the phone with his younger sister Eve (Gretchen Mol), whose husband Scott (Patrick Wilson) can go for days at a time without giving her a call from the road as a music manager.
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His other sister Maggie (Julianna Margulies) isn’t happy in her marriage either, with her husband Nick (Campbell Scott) down in the dumps since their kids moved away for college, but she’s less inclined to express it unless she can fictionalize it in her work as an author. It turns out all of the Millers have artistic pursuits — or they did, at least. Eve fronted a band until she and Scott got pregnant, and while it’s not central to the story, Burns can offer wry observations on the twists and turns of a career in an area he knows well. He also shows self-awareness when Nick reads a manuscript of his wife’s latest novel and concludes, “It’s rich people with champagne problems,” a not-so-veiled reference to the fact that no one in “Millers in Marriage” is scraping by.
But Burns pushes past that with sincere introspection of what people have to give up to balance their personal and professional ambitions and to accommodate a long-running partnership. The film also introduces a potential cipher for the filmmaker in Johnny (Benjamin Bratt), a rock journalist who bugs Eve about a book he’s working on and tells her he’s considering moving out of New York when he feels invisible in a young person’s town. As Eve is quick to point out, maybe he’s seeking attention from the wrong crowd.
“Millers in Marriage” is striking in how relaxed it feels, in spite of all the characters acting so uptight around one another. A cast that can look so comfortable in their own skin brings real gravitas to characters who have settled into lives they’re loathe to jeopardize with change, and Burns, with editor Janet Gaynor, finds an elegant, unhurried structure for the film with subtle flashbacks embedded in the course of conversations that expose what happened versus what someone would like to share or remember about their experience. What’s withheld is what drives the drama when the three main couples reach a reckoning, but when honesty is the premium currency, the romance takes shape in any open dialogue the characters can have with one another, which is even more seductive to an audience when Burns hasn’t lost his sharp ear for lived-in banter.
The film dips into the melodramatic as it inches closer to the end and choices have to be made, but if its players are revealed to be starring in a movie, they are also shown to be movie stars, making relatively mundane miseries well worth watching. While the issues may be as old as time, there’s solace in finding that some things really do get better with age.
