The great sportswriter John Feinstein once called golf “A good walk spoiled.” For those who have access to it, and not everyone does, golf can be a beautiful, relaxing game, the kind you can do while enjoying a leisurely Sunday on the green. For everyone else, it’s like watching that green grass grow. Clearly, writer/director Edward Burns loves the sport. He also loves being Irish. If you also love these things, then his latest indie dramedy, “Finnegan’s Foursome,” might be for you. For everyone else, it might feel like being stuck in a sand trap.
The Finnegan clan isn’t just golf fanatics; it’s what has defined the family for generations. Family patriarch Jack (Ian McElhinney) is a grizzled former golf pro who spent more time away playing than with his family. However, he did establish a family tradition: an annual Finnegan golf tournament that he, naturally, always wins. His two sons have taken this upbringing very differently. Multiple Tony Award nominee Brian d’Arcy James is eldest son Teddy, a popular novelist who takes everything in stride, even his current writer’s block. Burns plays the younger brother, Freddy, and he’s a very familiar type of character for fans of the filmmaker: supremely confident, bordering on arrogant, abrasive, and resentful. Burns has been playing this type of loudmouth for so long that he can do it in his sleep.
On the eve of the next tourney, a shock hole-in-one foreshadows a more shocking development: Jack’s sudden death. So while the old man is gone, the tradition still remains. There’s also the matter of Jack’s final wish, for his family to spread his ashes across the four golf courses he cherished most in his beloved native Ireland. So, along with Freddy’s ex-rocker son Frankie (Brian Muller), and Teddy’s daughter Marie (Erica Hernandez), who as a woman has never been part of the tournament before, they pack up Jack’s ashes for a few days of golfing and family squabbles.
“Finnegan’s Foursome” is a lot like those Adam Sandler comedies he would make with his buddies that were secretly just paid vacations. The film has little going on other than the Finnegans playing golf and arguing with one another. There are no discernible subplots of any importance, and the petty rivalries between the foursome are just that: petty and easily resolved. Freddy doesn’t just have a chip on his shoulder over his dad’s absence and unbeaten streak; he’s carrying an entire tree log. He’s easily the most unlikeable of the bunch. Burns is usually pretty good at finding the charming lug within the acerbic exterior, but he misses the mark here.
James, on the other hand, is just one of those actors who is just such a joy to watch. His Teddy is just so relaxed, a go-with-the-flow type who lets his brother’s insults bounce off of him. He doesn’t even care that he always comes in last, because he realizes these competitions are about more than victory. Hernandez also makes a good impression as the one female breaking into this all-boys club. Marie’s a combination of the three older men in her life. She’s got golf skills to rival any of them, and the swagger to match, but she doesn’t let rivalries rattle her the way Freddy does.
Excessively clocking in at around two hours, “Finnegan’s Foursome” could be an endurance test for those who only know Arnold Palmer from mixing tea and lemonade. However, if you’re going to spend this much time watching others sink putts, at least the visuals are absolutely breathtaking. Cinematographer Jeff Muhlstock captures the stunning natural beauty of Ireland’s finest courses, including the Belmullet Carne course in County Mayo, considered one of the best in all of the land.
“Finnegan’s Foursome” will deliver a few chuckles, but the most hearty laughs will be for anyone who knows the difference between a 7 iron and a 7 wood. Burns, whose breakout film was the Irish family drama “The Brothers McMullen” more than 30 years ago (feel old yet?), has stuck around this long because he knows his audience and gives them exactly what they want. His reach beyond that core fanbase is limited, but if he can appeal to them while getting in another 18 holes, what’s the harm?
