Ash Wednesday (2002) Reviews

I remember it very well, back in the 90’s, I had seen ‘The Brothers McMullen’ and I was really impressed. Indeed, it was very well received critically (it even won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival) and it seemed that Burns had a bright future as a director. Unfortunately, after the more commercially oriented ‘She’s the One’, none of his movies made a big impression and they have been more and more obscure. This movie is a perfect example. Indeed, it is quite unknown (In the US, it was only released in two theaters and grossed less than $3,000) and I bumped into it by accident at my dvd rental shop. To be honest, it was nothing really amazing but I still thought it was a decent gritty drama. Indeed, Burns, once again, managed to create a believable and interesting world (rather alien to me) and I thought that he delivered a decent performance as well. Eventually, the weakest point in this movie was in fact Elijah Wood. Indeed, even though he was an interesting casting choice, I thought he was actually not really convincing. Still, all in all, I thought it was a decent flick and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.