''Ash Wednesday'' is a 2002 American

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

film written, directed, and starring

Edward Burns Edward Fitzgerald Burns (born January 29, 1968) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director best known for appearing in several films including ''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998), '' 15 Minutes'' (2001), ''Life or Something Like It'' (200 ...

, alongside

Elijah Wood Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' (2012). Woo ...

and

Rosario Dawson Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama ''Kids''. Her subsequent film roles include ''He Got Game'' (1998), '' Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Men in Bl ...

. The film is set in the early 1980s in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the ea ...

neighborhood and tells the story of a pair of

Irish-American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

brothers who become embroiled in a conflict with the

Irish mob The Irish Mob (also known as the Irish mafia or Irish organized crime) is a collective of organized crime syndicates composed of ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia, and have been in ...

Plot

on Ash Wednesday, 1983: As

rumor A rumor (American English), or rumour (British English; see spelling differences; derived from Latin:rumorem - noise), is "a tall tale of explanations of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue in p ...

s are flying that Francis Sullivan's (

) younger brother Sean (

) who has been presumed dead for three years, appeared out of nowhere. It was afraid that the old killers might take a second stab at Francis's and Sean's life. An upstart approaches the local mob boss, who is Francis's protector for a hit job. Sean's wife, Grace (

) believed she was a widow all these years until Sean came back for her. The parish priest who was deceived initially, is feeling anxious. As bad guys with guns are closing in, Francis should get Sean and his wife out of the city. Can Francis avoid a war between rival factions, and hold onto a new found morality? Will the cross of ashes on his forehead protect him? At the end, Francis helps Sean reunite with Grace and his son, Sean Jr., as they head out of the city together in the back of a van. But Francis decides to stay back to stop Moran (

Oliver Platt Oliver Platt (born January 12, 1960) is a Canadian-born American actor. He is known for his starring roles in many films such as ''Flatliners'' (1990), ''Beethoven'' (1992), '' Indecent Proposal'', ''The Three Musketeers'' (both 1993), '' Execut ...

). The film closes with Francis wiping the cross of ashes from his forehead. The final credit consists of Francis being shot dead, while stepping outside the pub as the sniper leaves the scene before the police arrives.

Cast

as Francis "Fran" Sullivan *

as Sean Sullivan *

as Grace Quinonez *

as Moran *

James Handy James Handy is an American film actor. He appeared in numerous films and television shows since 1977. On film, he appeared in as Byers in '' K-9'' and in '' Logan''. His most notable television appearances are as Arthur Devlin in '' Alias'' and ...

as Father Mahoney * Brian Burns as Mike Moran, Moran's Cousin * Vincent Rubino as Vinny Boombata * James Cummings as J.C. Moran, Moran's Brother * Pat McNamara as "Murph" Murphy *

John DiResta John DiResta is an American former New York Transit police officer turned comedian, and actor. Career He was the title star of a short-lived UPN sitcom called '' DiResta'' from 1998-1999. He has appeared in several films, including '' Miss Con ...

as Pete *

Malachy McCourt Malachy Gerard McCourt (born 20 September 1931) is an American-Irish actor, writer, one-time pub owner, and politician. He was the 2006 Green Party of New York candidate for governor in New York State, losing to the Democratic candidate Eliot ...

as "Whitey" Smith *

Peter Gerety Peter Gerety (born May 17, 1940) is an American actor. He is best known as Judge Daniel Phelan in ''The Wire'' (2002–2008). Career Gerety is a veteran of stage, screen and television. In early 1992, he performed to critical acclaim on Broadway ...

as Uncle Handy *

Brian Delate Brian Delate (born April 8, 1949) is an American actor. He was born in Trenton, New Jersey, to Joseph and Patricia Delate, and was primarily raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Delate served in the Vietnam War before entering a career in act ...

as George "Crazy George" Cullen * Jimmy Burke as "Red" Kelly * Teresa Yenque as Mrs. Diaz * Julie Hale as Maggie Shea * Kathleen Doyle as Mrs. Flanagan * Marina Durell as Mrs. Quinonez * Michael Mulhern as Detective Pulaski * Michael Leydon Campbell as Jimmy Burke * Dara Coleman as John Coleman *

Penny Balfour Penny Balfour is a film and television actress. Selected filmography * '' Flawless'' (1999), as Cristal * '' Sidewalks of New York'' (2001), as Young Hooker * ''Drop Back Ten'' (2000), as Amanda Bennett * ''Ash Wednesday'' (2002), as Callie * ''A ...

as Callie * Kevin Kash as Paulie "Numbers" * Gregg Bello as Larossa, Vinny's Brother * Joe Lisi as Charlie, The Wiseguy * Jack DeFuria as Sean "Little Sean" Sullivan Jr.

Critical reception and box office

The film holds a 25% "rotten" rating on the website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on an aggregate score from 16 reviews. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film holds a score of 40 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews. The film was only released in two theaters and grossed less than $3,000.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ash Wednesday (Film) 2002 films 2002 crime drama films American crime drama films 2000s English-language films 2000s Spanish-language films Films set in Manhattan Films set in the 1980s Films shot in New York (state) American independent films Films directed by Edward Burns Films about the Irish Mob Films scored by David Shire 2002 independent films 2002 multilingual films American multilingual films 2000s American films