She’s the One (1996)

Director: Edward Burns

Cast: Edward Burns, Jennifer Aniston, John Mahoney

Synopsis: The love lives of two brothers, Mickey and Francis, interconnect as Francis cheats on his wife with Mickey’s ex-girlfriend, while Mickey impulsively marries a stranger.

As well as starring, Edward Burns (Saving Private Ryan) wrote and directed She’s the One, a bittersweet romantic comedy that has some sharp lines and a brisk pace, but whose characters resemble real people only in the fact that they have two eyes and a nose, etc. People in this movie do irrational things which are greeted with casual acceptance by those around them. The cast is an attractive one and they all give decent performances, even if some – such as the slutty businesswoman played by Cameron Diaz (The Box, Gambit) – are under-written. The outcome of all this preoccupation with sex and relationships is pretty obvious from the outset, but the sometimes witty lines (‘let me get this straight,’ asks an incredulous John Mahoney (Striking Distance) of his philandering son (Mike McGlone), ‘You don’t want to cheat on your girlfriend with your wife?’) keep things bubbling nicely. It won’t stay in your memory for long, but it won’t disturb you while it’s in there.