City Island

Well, you maybe won't believe that this movie really IS brilliant if you are only 30 minutes or so in. At least I didn't.

I actually got bored by the multiple - but at first not very promising - story lines going on. But I like Andy Garcia, I like Emily Mortimer and after all it had a very high rating here.

It got better though, and in the last 30 minutes or so, when everything started coming together, I watched almost with my mouth open and sometimes I had to laugh really hard.

And while Andy Garcia is a pretty good actor in general ... BOY is he good in this one !! I predict an Oscar nomination for him this year, no I am SURE he will get nominated for this role!

So, all I am saying is: Just give it a chance and sit through it. You won't regret it and you will end up LOVING it !!!

Really, it is a movie that shouldn't be missed, absolutely pleasing. I wasn't very sure of the movie in the beginning , I saw it with all my family and, man, we laughed and enjoyed this comedy more than expected. Now i am recommending it to all my friends and also to ones who read these lines, you won't regret. I cannot understand why this movie isn't presented to the public like other far worse movies, where you expect a lot seeing the trailer and get nothing. This is completely the opposite, you start from zero and go very high. I like the characters, i like the intrigue, everything, and i am not a big fan of Andy Garcia.

A big GO FOR IT, don't think twice !

It's always a pleasure to see great actors doing their stuff, even if the vehicle leaves something to be desired. Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies put their heart and soul into this project, with pretty convincing Bronx accents and characters. Those of you who find the constant screaming unrealistic - you don't know too many families from the boroughs. The plot was funny and moving, although you could see most of the punchlines and dramatic moments coming from a mile away. What really bugged me was the degeneration of the movie into the most obvious, predictable, sappy shtick during the last 20 minutes. That part was apparently written as a play rather than a film. It was calculated to evoke a strong audience reaction, and it worked, judging from the people around me in the theater. It would have been more appropriate for a crowd-pleasing scene in a Broadway comedy. OK for that kind of thing, but it was a jarring jolt from interesting to tedious for me.

We stumbled upon this title via Prime and what an incredible surprise. Quirky story, great acting across the board A group of damaged, lying, dysfunctional folks who each have a hidden secret, suspicions, and in the end, all really love each other, or learn to. Just a treat. WATCH IT!

City Island is indeed an island—a superior small film standing proudly alone this season in its American excellence about a fishing village in the Bronx where Rizzo family shenanigans happen just short of magical realism. They're eccentric in the Royal Tenenbaums/Moonstruck tradition with a touch of American Beauty hard edge.

Andy Garcia's Vince, a corrections officer (Please don't call him a "prison guard") keeps from his domineering wife, Joyce (Joanna Marguilles), the fact that he's taking acting lessons; he is aided by friendly fellow actor Molly (Emily Mortimer). Meanwhile ex-con son, Tony (Steven Strait), returns to the family (unknown as son to anyone else but Vince); like a Flannery O'Connor outsider, he changes things.

City Island could be subtitled "Secrets and Lies" because everyone in the family is withholding information and thereby causing mayhem. Through it all, they retain a dignity that surfaces when all is exposed and life begins again. So good-hearted is Vince, so loving is Joyce, so honest is ex-con Tony, and so lost is Molly that you are drawn into the family and watch one of their passionate dinners as if you were attending as a close friend. Believe me, I know Italian eating habits, and the combat of words at the table is one of the best Italian family scenes ever.

Granted, everyone manages to anger someone, but the loving care surfaces just when you thought there was no hope. Although their little family island has been breached by Tony, they are better for the disclosures. Alan Arkin's effective turn as a drama coach is a metaphor for the family's need to disclose.

City Island is NYC, Roosevelt Island, and all American cities, small and large, where Americans assimilate newcomers and their own eccentricities with a charm and good humor of which to be proud.

This is lovely film, presided over by a caring Garcia, whose understanding of reality in film is first-rate.