Edward Burns has spent much of his career exploring family dynamics, Irish heritage, and the baggage people carry from one generation to the next. Finnegan’s Foursome certainly checks all of those boxes. What I didn’t realize until watching it is just how much Burns seems to love golf. And I mean really love golf. Finnegan’s Foursome contains so much golf that it ranks alongside actual golf movies like The Greatest Game Ever Played or Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius. The difference is that those films are about golfers. This one isn’t.
The story follows the sons and grandkids of a recently deceased Irish golfer who set one final challenge before his death. His ashes must be spread at four specific locations throughout Ireland, sending the family on a journey that serves as both a road trip and a farewell tour. Burns stars alongside Brian d’Arcy James as brothers who have very different perspectives on the father they’ve lost. Burns plays the son still carrying unresolved resentment, convinced his father never truly cared for him because he was rarely around. His older brother sees things differently, creating enough contrast between them that they feel like two sides of the same coin.
Each man brings one of his children along for the trip, allowing the younger generation to observe the complicated process of saying goodbye. At its best, Finnegan’s Foursome is about grief, legacy, and how families wrestle with memories after someone is gone. What is actually a little interesting, and maybe a tad spoilery, is the revelation that their Dad’s favorite thing was golf, and he passed along that love and knowledge so all four are functional golfers. The side irony, is that the young generation aren’t really getting anything from their parents in the same obvious way. They love music, and there’s no sign that Burns or James (who has a lovely voice outside of this) are musically inclined.
The problem is that the film frequently loses sight of those ideas because it is so focused on golf. The foursome spends much of the runtime moving from course to course, hole to hole, wagering, arguing, competing, and reliving old tensions. Burns stages many of the film’s key conversations on the course itself, meaning we spend a lot of time watching drives, waiting for balls to land, tracking bets, and seeing who comes out ahead at each stop. There are stretches away from the links, but they are relatively brief compared to everything else.
For golf fans, that’s probably a feature rather than a red flag/. For everyone else, it may be a challenge. Even viewers who enjoy dysfunctional family dramedies may find themselves struggling with how thoroughly golf dominates the experience. It’s not simply a backdrop. It’s woven into nearly every major scene and emotional breakthrough. I would honestly be surprised if someone told me, “I hate golf, but I loved this movie,” because the sport is such an integral part of the storytelling.
That said, the cast does solid work throughout. While they don’t always feel like a believable family unit, they handle the material well enough to make the emotional moments land. Burns remains an effective ensemble filmmaker, even if the industry seems to have less room for the kind of modest character-driven stories he prefers to tell. His previous film, the long-awaited follow-up to The Brothers McMullen, also bypassed theaters, and Finnegan’s Foursome arrives with a similar fate.
I understand the strategy. Republic Pictures is releasing the film on demand just days before Father’s Day, and honestly, that’s probably the perfect place for it. If you’re sitting at home with your dad and he’s a golf enthusiast, this could be exactly what you’re looking for. The timing makes sense in a way a theatrical rollout probably wouldn’t.
As someone who can tolerate golf without exactly loving it, I found enough here to appreciate. Your mileage may vary depending on your relationship with the sport.
Take a swing. It’s not a hole-in-one, but it’s par for the course. Finnegan’s Foursome might be just the thing you need to get your luck back.
Fresh: 6.8/10
