She's the One

A pleasant package then, easy on the eye, and gently charming but, like The Brothers McMullen, one which places Burns as a comfortable rather than cutting-edge moviemaker. Read full review

A flimsy but pleasant enough comedy. Read full review

Enough Burns pungency remains for She’s the One to qualify as a setback, not a drop into quicksand. Read full review

She's The One is carefully observed, well-made, enjoyable, thought-provoking and even funny. And: cracking crumpet, Gromit. Read full review

She's the One has fewer rough edges than The Brothers McMullen, but it also has fewer of the weird little nooks and crannies of personality that were the best things about Burns' debut film. Read full review

The comparison to Woody Allen is obvious, not only in the New York setting and the characters' comic approach-avoidance to sex, but in Burns' casting of his real girlfriend to play his screen girlfriend. Uh, Eddie big mistake there. [23 Aug 1996, p.41]

A bland, so-so romantic comedy without the charm to see it through. Read full review

She's the One plays like an overhaul of “The Brothers McMullen” with a larger budget, and it's time for him to move on. Read full review

I'm sure there's an interesting story of sibling rivalry somewhere in She's the One, but Burns has cluttered it up with so much artificiality that it never gels. Who really cares whether Francis and Mickey make peace with each other, or who ends up with what girl? If these things mattered to us, She's the One would have been a success, but since they don't, it isn't. Since New York only needs one Woody Allen, maybe for his next film, Burns will try stretching his thematic and geographical boundaries. Otherwise, his promising film making career may already be in trouble. Read full review

But this unsavory stew is just plain overcooked. Read full review

And yet, the focus of the movie remains fixed on the men, which makes this Ode to Strong Women seem a little patronizing. Or expedient. The director's long-time girlfriend, co-star Bahns, has the most flattering female role. Bahns had no acting experience when she was cast in the low-budget "Brothers McMullen." She still doesn't. Watching her her in "She's the One," you realize that it must be love. [23 Aug 1996, p.45]

In the end, we never know why anyone is the one for anyone. And this qualifies as a filmmaking problem, at least for us here on Earth. Read full review

The film's tagline describes it as “a romantic comedy about two brothers...and the one thing that came between them.” This “thing” appears to be the women in their lives, and if this description sounds even slightly misogynistic, perhaps it does so for a reason. Read full review

But the magic has deserted him with She's the One, which turns out to be one of those remixes that creates nostalgia for the original. Read full review