City Island

I stumbled upon this movie accidentally and haven't even heard of this movie until the night of watching it. All I can say is WOW!!! This is such a great movie. Andy Garcia performance is amazing.

This movie is not a Hollywood mainstream. In a way, its similar to Little Miss Sunshine: dysfunctional family, every character is a weirdo, Even grandpa from Little Miss sunshine is in this movie, but its different. Similarly to Little Miss Sunshine, its a low budget independent film. If you didn't like Little Miss Sunshine, and you don't like that genre in general, you probably won't like this movie.

Personally, I loved this movie and in my list, it is in the top 10 of this movies I've seen this year.

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.

This is a terrific film, a testament to the brilliance of actor/producer Andy Garcia. It's got it all -- quirky but lovable characters and a great plot with twists reminiscent of the comedies of Oscar Wilde (very clearly updated, of course). As far-fetched as it might seem, it rings true from start to finish. Can't wait for more from writer/director Raymond De Felitta. It's smart, touching, hysterical, and trumps just about everything I've seen in months. Like everyone else, I don't know why this is running under the radar. Andy Garcia plays his role like a fine violin -- and he's totally captivating. All the actors deliver, and every moment is a treat. I don't know when or if it will get a wide release, but if you get the chance, see it while you can.

Like a number of smaller films this year such as The Kids are All Right, Please Give, Winter's Bone and the first two films of the Millennium Trilogy, City Island is one of this years sleeper indie hits and it is easy to see why. Out on DVD today, it is one of the best movies of the year.

In many ways, City Island is a traditional dysfunctional family melodrama, and it revels in that mold. What elevates this dark comedy to something compelling and infinitely memorable are the universally strong performances, confident direction and most importantly -- one of the best scripts in years. Oddly, I found the same response to a very different film; Frost/Nixon. Boasting the same underlying strengths by way of actors and writing, both are perplexingly entertaining for movies with such a humble story arc and could easily be dismissed as pompous Oscar bait. This is far from the truth.

By way of an introductory voice-over narration we meet the Rizzo family who reside on City Island, a tiny island community in the Bronx. The residents of this picturesque hidden jewel consist of two groups, "mussel suckers" who are immigrants to the island and "clam diggers," who like the Rizzos, have resided there for generations. Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a prison guard but secretly aspires to become an actor, a masquerade so embarrassing to him it leads his wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies) to believe he is having an affair. Their son Vince Jr. has a secret fetish for more portly woman and their daughter Vivian is secretly working as a stripper to pay for school. To top things off, Vince has come across a paroled prisoner who just so happens to be his son Tony who he had abandoned during a relationship decades prior.

Basing your opinion on that description alone, it would be very easy to dismiss City Island as an outlandish comedy of errors, but the execution is so genuine and deliberate it borders on genius. As tensions escalate after Vince brings Tony home with him (under false pretences) everyone's secrets collide in a climax that ranks among my favorite finales of all time, drama, comedy, horror film or otherwise. As the writing behind the big finish shines through, so does the believable mix of fluctuating emotions exhibited by the cast. Words do not do this scene justice, so I urge you to simply experience it yourself.

Each principle member of the cast gives what I would call career-high performances, especially Andy Garcia who anchors the story as everything dissolves around him. He is hilariously deadpan at one moment and tender at the next, which sets off Margulies' fiery Joyce to even more palatable effect. Steven Straight as Vice's long-lost son is perfectly nuanced as an ex-con who is as puzzled by his new lodgings and the kindness of a supposed stranger as he is disenchanted with society. Emily Mortimer gets a great side role as a colleague of Vince's in his secret acting class; a relationship that stays refreshingly plutonic.

Every member of the Rizzo family is given enough screen time to become fully realized individuals but without taking so much attention away from another to degrade them to a caricature. Vince Jr. is sarcastic and annoying most of the time and in a lesser film he would have been overused and could have easily sunk the film. But writer/director Raymond De Felitta plays to each characters strengths and balances their interplay faultlessly.

Above all else, City Island is a film about secrets and how when kept bottled up can shred even the strongest of relationships but when shared can be a uniting factor. This theme seems fitting as this little treasure is the best kept secret of the year.

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.