We saw a movie this weekend...

...on TV called The Fitzgerald Family Christmas. Apparently, it opens in theaters on December 7, but we were able to see it on Comcast On Demand. Whatever. It's a good flick and I recommend it.

The movie was written and directed by Ed Burns, who also made The Brothers McMullen in 1995, about three Irish Catholic siblings on Long Island. I saw that one, too, but don't remember caring for it as much. In some ways, I thought The Fitzgerald Family Christmas was an improvement on it.

Burns, 44, is the son of Irish immigrants who grew up on Long Island. He's been quoted as saying:

I feel Irish-Americans are the forgotten minority group. Nobody else is making films about them. You have Woody Allen and Paul Mazursky making films about Jewish-Americans, you have Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola making films about Italian-Americans and you have Spike Lee and John Singleton  making films about African-Americans. Who is making films about Irish-Americans?

My family was from Chicago, not New York, and I grew up in the suburbs, not in a neighborhood like Queens. (We were also a generation, or two, more removed from the Old Sod.) So I didn't identify with the Fitzgeralds that closely. (We also had our own familial dysfunctions, thank you.)

But I really liked it; it reminded me a little of the flicks Woody Allen used to make. (You know, the good ones.) I also thought most of the scenes and dialogue were pretty darn realistic. Not perfect; but close.

Give it a shot; I think you'll like it.