There is something almost remarkable about how “Millers in Marriage,” a relationship drama written and directed by Edward Burns (who also co-stars), manages to gather a group of some otherwise acclaimed actors, sticks them in rooms to talk through what are inevitably emotionally charged situations that their characters are facing, and comes out with something so empty. This void of a movie has plenty of the right pieces to work with at hand, but continually arranges them in the most blunt, least interesting manner possible. It’s a film that bolds, underlines and then shouts at you what it’s about, though never authentically earns your emotional investment.
Save for the more measured performance of Minnie Driver, none of the other actors emerge unscathed as all get dragged down by overwritten dialogue and painfully unsubtle storytelling.
When one character self-reflexively remarks about how a story within the story is about rich people and their champagne problems, it feels like Burns is attempting to preemptively defend his film. The issue is that “Millers in Marriage” isn’t bad because it’s about the wealthy, as plenty of films have found insightful ways to tackle such stories. It’s because it’s told in the most ham-fisted manner possible, growing unredeemingly tiresome over its nearly two-hour runtime.
The film, which premiered Wednesday at the Toronto International Film Festival, follows three siblings who are now in relationships that all have their distinct problems. Eve (Gretchen Mol) was a musician who gave it all up to be a mom. (However, “Nightbitch” this is not, even as one wishes it was.) Instead, Eve has now been stuck with the husband from hell, Scott (Patrick Wilson), who mostly just cares about his own music career, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and being cruel to his wife whenever he can.
Maggie (Julianna Margulies) is an author married to a fellow writer, Nick (Campbell Scott), though is the only one of the two doing any real writing, leading to strain in their already shaky relationship. Then there’s Andy (Burns) who is trying to move on from a relationship with his ex-wife, Tina (Morena Baccarin), so he can focus on fully starting a new one with Renee (Driver) that initially seems to be going quite well.
Of course, even the most sturdy of these relationships starts to come apart in Burns’ film as this is an experience built around how bad people are about figuring out what they actually want. Eve grows attracted to a music journalist (Benjamin Bratt), though struggles to figure out how far she wants to take things; Maggie seems to despise her husband yet continues going through the motions of their marriage; Andy continually tells Renee that he wants to be with her just as he keeps getting sucked back into talking with Tina. Whenever the characters reminisce about events from their past that led them to this point, the film clunkily cuts back in time to the moments that they reference so we can see them play out in their entirety. Rather than prove illuminating about their state of mind, it just feels exhausting, like Burns doesn’t trust us as an audience or, more importantly, his own writing to convey emotion without spelling things out.
Where a film like “We Live in Time,” which was also screened at the festival, used its many jumps in time to create more poetic resonances about the choices we make in life and their repercussions, everything in “Millers in Marriage” proves perfunctory. Never once do any of the characters feel truly alive or complex as the awkward dialogue leaves what should be emotional moments ringing hollow. When we begin to observe how Eve is trying to get back to living a life that’s for herself, Scott will inevitably come through and just start drunkenly tearing her down, making a subsequent scene where he asks her if she’s still happy in their marriage utterly laughable.
Some of this lack of self-awareness is the point as his character is so fixated on himself that he can’t even see how awful he is, but there’s also the sense that Burns is just as unaware of how awkward this melodramatic moment is. The part with Maggie as she goes about her day of writing and mostly remaining unhappy with her marriage feels slightly more mature (mostly merely by comparison), though never goes anywhere remotely interesting either.
Of the three storylines, the one that’s almost salvageable is the part with Driver as she does all she can to bring some more occasional dry wit and genuine emotion to the film. Alas, even she can’t overcome the stiff scene partner she has in Burns and the meandering movie that he has trapped both of them in. Perhaps if “Millers in Marriage” had honed in on this couple and their story rather than making an overstretched ensemble piece, it could have worked. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to give Driver more room to work, as one of her scenes near the end sees her making a monologue, which was both too little and comes too late, into something more moving through her performance. She can’t save the movie with this moment, but she sure does try.
Much like the trio of couples themselves, “Millers in Marriage” just feels like it’s rearranging deck chairs on the sinking ship of their relationships. No matter how much it jumps around and how much the cast tries to run away from the feeble story, it’s a film you’d just rather divorce already.
