tday I know Ed Burns. He writes movies about Irish American families in New York and they have heart and a lot of soul. And truth, honesty. Purple Violets isn't one of those movies.I loved Selma Blair and Patrick Wilson. They shined ... Debra Messing gave an embarrassing performance. Her take on her character was a caricature of it and she apparently approached it like a sitcom, as opposed to an independent film. Luckily, she's done other vehicles since.The story was lacking in purpose and commitment. Wishy-washy, should I write, shouldn't I? The characters ... well honestly, other than Patti and Brian, I didn't really care about them. And I didn't really care that much about Patti and Brian, either. It was not the Ed Burns I've come to love, with his handsome, crooked grin, and vulnerable, yet street-smart sensibilities. They call Ed Burns the "Irish Woody Allen." Sometimes I think when Ed Burns tries too hard to BE Woody Allen, he falls way short. Ed writes great stories about very close friends and family and the intricacies of their relationships and situations, but things we all go through. He pulls out the microscope, so to speak. You KNOW these people. And while being very funny and sarcastic, he's sensitive and honest. What he tried here was far too broad. Out of the "family" context, his characters were too normal and not nearly as neurotic as they could/should be. When you write about people who are not with each other on a daily basis, you have to give them a reason to be together. He should just be himself, write what he knows best: deeply flawed, working-class, Irish American New York families and the people who touch their lives. That's when he shines, that's when he grabs your heart.

MBunge This film has to be the result of a drunken wager. One of Edward Burns' running buddies must have bet him a case of scotch or something that he couldn't make a movie where the main character was a woman. So, Burns set out to write and direct Purple Violets, where the main character is a woman…and lost the bet. That's because all this thing is good for is demonstrating in painful detail that Edward Burns cannot make a movie where the main character is a woman. You won't find too many better examples than this of a talented storyteller struggling against the very story he's trying to tell.Patti Petalson (Selma Blair) used to be a writer. She even got a thinly veiled account of her college years published, but that was many years ago. Now she works as a realtor for a condescending ass of a boss, is married to a pudgy dick with an English accent and hasn't written a word in forever. Then one night, while having dinner with her caustic girlfriend Kate (Debra Messing), Patti has a chance encounter with Brian Callahan (Patrick Wilson). He's the old boyfriend she dumped back in college who went on to become a famous crime novelist and just published his first attempt at serious literature to horrible reviews. Brian still hangs out with Michael Murphy (Edward Burns), the wiseass who dated Kate in college until he broke her heart. Brian also has an intolerable bitch of a girlfriend.Do I actually need to explain to you where the plot goes from here? Seriously? Can I not just tell you that this is Burns' feeble attempt at an utterly unsurprising romantic comedy and leave it at that?What I do want to make clear is that this is NOT an ensemble movie. Purple Violets is about Patti Petalson. She's the main character and there's no doubt about that. However, within the first 15 minutes of the film it is stunningly obvious that Burns is not only much more interested in the secondary characters of Brian and Murphy, he doesn't know what to really do with Patti and doesn't know that he doesn't know what to do with Patti. There are far more scenes between Brian and Murphy than there are between Patti and Kate, with Kate reduced to even more of two-dimensional bitch than Brian's intolerable bitch of a girlfriend. Heck, I'd bet there are more scenes between Brian and Murphy than between Brian and Patti and more scenes of Patti and Murphy than Patti and Kate. And whenever Burns writes a scene of Patti by herself, she's never doing anything. She's standing and moping or she's walking and moping or she's looking out the window and moping. And for those few scenes of Patti and Kate together, can you guess what they do? That's right, they talk almost exclusively about Brian and Murphy, with Patti even taking Murphy's side and defending a guy she hasn't seen in over a decade against the woman who's supposed to be her best friend.Purple Violets is like something that would be dissected in a woman's studies program at an all-girls university as an example of false consciousness. Burns thinks he's making a movie about a woman and her struggles in life, but he's not. He's really making a movie about a couple of guys. That's where all of his attention is. That's where all of his effort is. That's undeniably the movie he wants to make. He just doesn't realize it. In addition to being awesomely misdirected, this film isn't very well done in general. The best stuff is (surprise!) the relationship between Brian and Murphy. But Patti and the other female characters are so slackly written that it seeps into everything else. I mean, Burns actually has someone say out loud "My heart is breaking". It's all either shallow or truncated or both.Purple Violets is terrible. I hope Burns didn't skimp when he bought that other guy the case of scotch or whatever he owed him.

jentri76 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.

gkeith_1 Oh, Patrick Wilson (Brian). I have seen him in Phantom of the Opera, Little Children, Evening and now Purple Violets. He is excellent. He was wasting his time with the "Ecstasy" woman in this one. I am glad he got rid of her. Patti is nicer, and more his cup of tea.......... Edward Burns (Murph) was comical, and his comeback from screwed-up alcoholic was redeeming when finally his ex-girlfriend (Kate) ended up (spoilers here) with him near the end of this movie. I am glad she made him wait, and kept him dangling on that string for so long.......... Patti's husband was a total moron, and such a liar when he was talking with Patti near the end -- and at the same time a slutty bimbo was waiting for him back in the bedroom. I mean, he was such a loser. She must have been better than the online porn, but maybe it was Brian's ex. Maybe she and Patti's husband deserved each other............ Kate was tough, and a good friend to Patti. All those years after college, you mean to tell me she had no relationships with anyone else after Murph? Score one for her -- making Murph take her to the best restaurant in NY.......... Finally, Patrick is a singer. He sang a little in Evening, and did a great job in Oklahoma (Youtube). I tell ya, this boy has a great future. He was very sexy in Evening, AND Phantom of the Opera, PLUS the scene in the laundry room with Kate Winslet (Little Children) was one for the memory books!!!!!!!!!Finally, does every story have to make sense? People IRL don't always have cut-and-dried-endings to their stories. Some are ongoing. Besides, we know that Patrick will end up in yet another movie, always being that sexy sweetie-pie self. I know that this is not the typical story about football players, car chases and people trying to out-run the police. This is a quiet story that somehow blends thoughts and dreams of thirty-somethings, who knew each other once upon a time, and who now hope to continue with the threads that will lead into their futures. I watched this movie to the end, and for me that says it was good and enjoyable. 10/10.