Two Family House

A good story, very ethnic, in that new york/Staten island, working class kind of way, circa 1950s.

I started watching this on HBO and sat through to the end. This is a story told by a narrator looking back on the unexpected events that lead up to his life. The characters are all very strong and believable, and you find yourself identifying with them, even if you didn't want to at first. Not a fast action flick, but easy to follow on a slow Sunday afternoon, which is what it was when i saw it. If you like nice narratives, gradual plot development, and sweet, unanticipated turns, this is a film to see.

Buddy's repressed. A young Italian-American man living in Staten Island in 1956, he sees opportunity all around him. It's laying there waiting for him to pick it up and run with. Except for one major obstacle, his wife Estelle. She wants only for Buddy to find his narrow niche in the local community, with its dead-end job and familiar surroundings, and exist quietly in her idea of the American dream.

But it's not Buddy's vision. So Buddy perseveres, undercut at every turn by Estelle. He finally manages to buy a two-family house to turn into his dream; a bar on the first floor, his home on the second. The current occupants are a foul-mouthed white trash Irish immigrant family, the very young wife in a very pregnant way. When she gives birth to a child whose father is obviously black, the older husband abandons her. And from this point Buddy's life journey takes a remarkable turn.

Two Family House is a prototypical Indie film in all its positive aspects. It does very well with little budget, maximizing the contributions of cast and crew. The uplifting story is told without pandering or exploitation. The movie's not great, but it is effective, and most importantly, very enjoyable.

Late afternoon on a monday, flipping through my 8 chanels of HBO, I found this little number and feel all the richer for it. Good acting and genuine make a shoestring budget feel and slightly implausible plot fade into the recesses of your disbelief. A warm, poignant story about the kind of guy that we can all relate to.

Well, football is over, so I caught this on an early Sunday evening watching HBO. Never heard of it, and I honestly don't know how I started watching it - just flipping around I guess and I heard an Irish accent, so I watched for a bit. Turned out to be a very good movie, not a great movie, but interesting nonetheless. Michael Rispoli wins you over with his Italian nice-guy performance, and Kelly MacDonald is wonderful (for some reason reminded me of Donna Reed in It's a Wonderful life). Really, this was just a slice of life picture with some characters that were interesting and compelling. I know this isn't a really great review I'm writing here - I guess I just want to say that if you come upon the movie, give it a chance. It's not going to change your life, but you'll probably talk about with anyone you see who happened to see it to, and that's always a good thing.

This film produces laughs and sighs by presenting the very believable antagonism of two working class ethnic groups in what then was New York City's rural borough, Staten Island. As in life generally there isn't a happy ending for all involved in relationships that are jarred by the real bigotry directed against an Irish immigrant who bore a black child while married to a drunkard of the first water (or whiskey).

While Mary is clearly victimized, physically and psychologically, by her boorish Lushington of a husband the symbolic violence is the attitude of the Italian men and women who accept without thinking stereotypes of blacks and Irish. Their comfort in the supposed security of their shared little world was then and is now the hallmark of daily bias in America.

The acting is superb. So what if Mary is gorgeous and Buddy average (a safe euphemism). Gregory Peck in a working class Staten Island neighborhood you're not going to find (hmm, is THAT a stereotypical remark?).

Rent this film! It's terrific!!