I am a big Edward Burns fan - from day one when I saw The Brothers McMullen - which I thought was brilliant - and Burns' rapid rise in movies is the stuff dreams are made of - indeed, no one I can think of has the unprecedented career path that Burns has - if they'd made a movie about it no one would have believed it - in fact his Irish-Catholic-heterosexual slant on life is very endearing - he seems utterly incapable of writing gay characters since as far as I know he never has - I find his unabashed straightness amusing to say the least - but I think it would be nice if he at least tried to work a gay character into his stories - stretch a bit Ed - it won't kill you - in Purple Violets Burns goes all the way in writing about two very straight guys who are very best friends. What is Burns trying to do to us? He casts the best looking guy in movies (Patrick Wilson) along with himself (Burns) the second best looking guy in movies and together you can't take your eyes off them - what a pair - how could they keep their hands off one another - the only misstep in Purple Violets for me was the casting of Selma Blair's husband. He just did not work at all and that was a big disappointment. Selma Blair is a knock-out - why would she fall for a chunky nerd? Doesn't make sense.

I've been an Ed Burns fan for many years. I think the fact that he is an actor, writer and director shows over and over again in the work he produces. He's not a big, flashy kind of performer that writes for the masses, but rather an unconventional, understated artist who works from the heart. That is both rare and admirable. I thought the film had a certain sweetness and raw humor about it. Burns has a gift for finding the honest moments in life & interjecting elements of those into character driven pieces, where he gives them a new home on screen. Very naturalistic & effective approach to dialog too, as demonstrated in this film. Blair particularly shines.

I kept expecting to care about the characters in this film at some point, but realized after 45 minutes that mostly I disliked each and every one of them. If this is an inside view of NY's thirty something elite I wonder why more buildings don't voluntarily fall on the city to rid it of it's self indulgent and invariably uninteresting population.Of the four leads, Debra Messing was the only one to make the slightest sense and she was as two dimensional as a paper doll. Selma Balir did a credible job with her character, since the character seems to be as bored as she is boring. The men were all caricatures of various types, but none were in the slightest individuals to be sympathized with, and I can only hope that there were few who could relate to them in any way. I was bored. BORED! BORED! BORED! I recommend you look discreetly aside at the video store and opt for a documentary on paint drying. Or, if you are feeling particularly in need of self punishment. go to the kitchen and stick a fork in your eye.

There are some purple-people heartstring beaters which are entangled in New York romantic dilemmas that provide the film "Purple Violets" a proper cinematic blossom. The movie is the latest Writer-Director Edward Burns offering. Steady Eddie continues his streak as a master of developing relational narratives on the eccentricities of personal relationships between New Yorkans. The differential quality of "Purple Violets" contrary to most of Burns' past movies is that the central character here is a female. Selma Blair stars as Patti, a real estate agent who is in a quiescent entrapped marriage with an egoistic restaurateur. Patti is also a former author who craves returning to the literary form but lacks the inspiration. That is until she reunites with Brian Callahan, an old flame who also happens to be an acclaimed sleuth mystery writer. Brian's writing song these days is to formulate scribes on other relational themes that strike a writing chord with him. But unfortunately not for his fan base who crave for his detective novels; the book store signing scenes were a comedic delight. Michael "Murph" Murphy is Brian's BFF who morphs his life from an arrogant alcoholic college student to an arrogant non-alcoholic successful lawyer. Murph dated Patti's best friend Kate in college, but cheated her out of a potential nuptial if you get my adulterous drift. However, Murph now wants his Kate back and eat her too. Kate is a strident schoolteacher who does everything in her power to resist the Murphaleous charm. Patrick Wilson had the write stuff as the garrulous Brian and Edward Burns was a scene-stealer as the carefree Murph. And I am not going to even mess with Debra Messing's strong brassy performance as Kate. But the premier acting of "Purple Violets" came in the shape of Selma Blair's delicate but empowering stand-pat work as Patti. "Purple Violets" also had some fine supporting acting tulips as well from Dennis Farina as Patti's preaching boss Gilmore and Donal Logue as her overbearing husband Chazz. But at the end of the day what made these "Purple Violets" grow in out hearts was Burns' ingenious scribe and direction. His artistic message of creating movies for self-enrichment and acting in others for audience satisfaction is delivered wisely in the film. Do not violate your movie pleasure by not nourishing the "Purple Violets". Feed them now with your viewing! ***** Excellent