City Island (2009) User Reviews (122)

Do you want to know a Secret?

[ferguson-6 · 8/10 · 4 April 2010]

Greetings again from the darkness. I am always amazed, amused and somewhat satisfied when a writer gathers up multiple stereotypes, massages the conflict and dialogue, and emerges with a script that captures interest and holds attention. Writer/director Raymond De Felitta has done just that with working class Italian New Yorkers.

All story lines revolve around the secrets each of the family members keep from the others. Sure, we all understand that two-way communication and trust create a much stronger and healthier family, but sometimes, it's just not that simple.

Andy Garcia plays the head of this secretive bunch and he sets the stage with two whoppers. The first is his slinking off to acting classes while chasing his lifelong dream of becoming an actor - like his inspiration, Marlon Brando. To cover this one up, he tells his wife (Julianna Margulies) that he is off to another poker game, unaware that she interprets this as code for his having an affair.

They have a daughter (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) who has lost her college scholarship and is saving money to re-enroll by working (secretly) as a stripper. Their odd ball son (Ezra Miller), who believes he is too smart to attend classes, develops an online fetish habit that ends up VERY close to home.

In most films, this would be plenty of ammunition to create havoc among the players. Not here. Garcia's second, and much larger secret, throws this dysfunctional family into a tailspin - and he somehow is the last to realize. Emily Mortimer, Steven Strait and Alan Arkin all provide strong support to the story and this "family".

Mr. De Felitta explored some of these family topics in "The Thing About My Folks", but here he is working with his own script. The balance between comedy, conflict and insight is actually very good; though, the New Yorker habit of loud mealtime conversation is somewhat discomforting for this southern boy. Still, I have nothing but positive things to say about how the stereotypes end up providing self-realization to each of the characters, and even more importantly, an understanding of what their family really is. Good stuff here.

Funny plot, great acting, marred by sappy shtick at the end

[whitnall · 7/10 · 2 May 2010]

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.

A dysfunctional family dramedy in all its glory

[napierslogs · 7/10 · 25 August 2010]

"City Island" is set in City Island, a small fishing community of the Bronx, New York. Generally, in these small communities, everyone knows all your secrets. But this film is centered on the Rizzo family, who all have their own secrets. These secrets don't so much tear them apart but keep them angry and on edge. The good thing is, it's not nearly as dark as it sounds, it's a comedy too.

Overall, this film is well done. Great writing, and great casting. Andy Garcia is masterful as Vincent Russo, Emily Mortimer is charming as his fellow actor, Steven Strait is enigmatic as the prison inmate brought home to his family, Dominik Garcia-Lorido is captivating as his daughter, Julianna Margulies is forceful as his maligned wife, and young Ezra Miller, his son, delivered his comedic lines with a seasoned ascorbic tongue.

It definitely fits into the dysfunctional family dramedy genre. The comedy at times is non sequitur and is too weird to be funny, but when it's sweet and honest, it's quite cute. "City Island" is good, above average for it's genre, but you have to be able to withstand family arguments in the Bronx accent to be able to make it through.

Proud Assimilation

[JohnDeSando · 15 June 2010]

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.

Almost Great

[hpipik · 7/10 · 4 December 2010]

Each person in the family has a secret (except the wife, played by Julianna Margulies, who is just angry and unhappy). The movie builds up to a cataclysmic confrontation in which everybody learns everything.

So, the movie does have its slow moments, but the idea is charming and the acting is excellent. If you need aliens from outer space or axes in heads, etc., this movie may not be for you. But if you like excellent acting and quirky characters, you may enjoy the movie as I did.

There are some defects in the movie. For example, the father's deep dark secret is that he wants to be a movie actor. Keep in mind that Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) has had this dark desire since he was a kid, he has lived in NYC all his life, he takes acting classes in NYC, so he has been surrounded by the life of the theater forever, he has teachers, he talks to actors. We see him reading a book on acting (it looks like "An Actor Prepares" by Stanislavski). And yet, somehow he has no idea what a casting call is. Even I know what a casting call is and I have nothing to do with acting.

To hide his acting ambition, Rizzo tells his wife he is playing poker. She thinks he is cheating on her. But, if he were playing poker, surely the wife would know some of his poker buddies, she would know where the game was played, would not the game be sometimes played in their own home? And, if she thinks he is cheating, why would she tolerate it for so long?

Perhaps one of the strangest scenes is where Rizzo has to borrow Tony's idea about how to play a tough guy, during his casting call. Why on earth would that be? How could Rizzo have been a prison guard for years without himself being a tough guy or, at the very least, seen plenty of prison tough guys in action? Why, of all things, does he have to make this up?

I could go on, and it is these and other defects that give the movie the feel of a film school project and keep it from being great. My advice: forget the defects and enjoy the movie.

The best kept secret of the year

[Simon_Says_Movies · 9/10 · 24 August 2010]

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.

Worth seeing for some of the delightful performances, particularly Garcia, who makes this film his own with wonderful comic touches

[Likes_Ninjas90 · 7/10 · 6 June 2010]

Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a prison guard who is holding a number of secrets from his family. He continues to smoke secretly even though his wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies) believes he has quit. During certain evenings he is also taking an acting class when he has told his family that he is attending a poker game. Most seriously however, he realises that one of the inmates locked up is actually his son from a previous relationship he had before he met his wife. Although he has never told Joyce about his son Tony (Steven Strait), he decides to help him stay out of trouble by bringing him home as a house guest for thirty days and pretending that he is an old friend. The rest of Vince's family hold their own secrets too. Vince's youngest son Vince Jr. (Ezra Miller) is attracted to large women and watches pornography to satisfy his urges, while his daughter Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) has lost her college scholarship and is working in a strip club. In the acting class headed by Michael Malakov (Alan Arkin), Vince is partnered with Molly (Emily Mortimer), an intelligent woman who allows Vince to vent his secrets and encourages him to be more honest.

Cleverly, the title of this very funny dark comedy refers to not only the unique and beautiful setting of the film in a little fishing village in the Bronx but also the more metaphorical idea of the way that people are crowded together, yet isolated from each other through the secrets they hold. It is a shame that many of these secrets that form the major plot points and climaxes of the picture are revealed in City Island's trailer because it makes for a far more predictable and less surprising adventure. Some of these plot points are highly telegraphed by Raymond De Felitta's direction and might be foreseeable for some viewers anyway. Thankfully, the climax of City Island draws many of these crazy threads together in a sequence of family chaos and dramatic irony that is so clever and funny that it really elevates the energy of the film. Raymond De Felitta, who also wrote the screenplay, could be accused of using too many contrivances and coincidences to make these plot points connect and his inclusion of the acting class makes for a fun but relatively transparent and simple metaphor for the way people hide their true selves from each other. A film like Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (2007) was far more subtle in its depiction of rehearsed speeches and performances as a means of hiding one's darkest emotions. Yet for any of these faults in the script, this is a smart, hysterically funny and heartfelt depiction of the dysfunctional family, with a lovely message at its core about the importance of honesty.

What holds much of this film together and provides the laughs are the dynamics of the Rizzo family. Although Garcia has defined his career by playing hardened men, he rather fittingly displays a number of layers to his character here. He realises the necessity to stamp his authority as a guard but he also has a far more vulnerable side when he grants both the audience and Molly a sense of his guilt about his past and the mistakes that he made. Garcia also holds a number of fine comic touches to contrast the more emotional moments. His nervousness towards the fury of his wife and his initially embarrassing audition for a Scorsese picture offer genuine comic touches to a terrific performance. The casting of Garcia's own daughter is also a clever choice in developing the authenticity of the family dynamics and the way that some of the arguments with Vivian escalate are funny and true. Julianna Margulies has a great time as Joyce, a frustrated and impulsive woman and Ezra Miller also has a few funny moments, though his subplot about his attraction to fat women is the oddity of the picture because it does not tie in as nicely as the others and seems to belong to another film. Emily Mortimer brings a level of sweetness and intelligence to a cute performance and her secret is also a dark and surprisingly touching one.

City Island is a small and perhaps not entirely memorable comedy because of its predictability and contrivances. Yet there are still enough laughs and moments of poignancy to make this one of the more thoughtful and engaging American comedies so far this year. It is still certainly worth seeing for some of the delightful performances, particularly Garcia, who makes this film his own with wonderful comic touches and plenty of heart as well.

A Must See!!!

[lawrentzioo · 9/10 · 1 February 2010]

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 !

Do you have any secrets?

[MikeyB1793 · 7/10 · 5 February 2011]

Well worth a watch. There're a dysfunctional family without it being overstated. There are some good laughs and even better twists. A good cast that displays well there quirky traits. Secrets are kept and tensions rise throughout. There is misinformation and misconceptions about what people are doing and who did what to whom. It all works out well in the end.

Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies shine throughout. I felt that the scenes with Emily Mortimer were overdone emotionally and interrupted the flow of the movie. But other than that the movie holds up and delivers with some snappy dialogue.

Great movie

[mnemon07 · 10/10 · 21 December 2009]

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.

a wacky comedy about an Italian family and their LIES! (in capital letters)

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 1 June 2010]

I wonder how many, if any, real Italian comedies writer/director Raymond De Felitta has seen. I mean the ones where the characters are all very emotional, both in their anger, their fears, their sadness, their joy, and what they may hide or how they brag. City Island reflects an Italian family, the Rizzos, who are functionally dysfunctional in a manner that doesn't lessen these people as actual people. True, each one is given something of a sitcom set-up or quirk (i.e. the daughter is part of the "stripper myth" that a girl can pay her way through college after losing her scholarship by stripteasing; the son has a thing for fat girls, and the father is a secret actor in his spare time). But everyone is well-rounded, we know that they are good-hearted and care for one another, and laugh at how easily they're able to go from 1 to 10 on the I'll-tear-your-head-off-for-saying-that scale.

The film works because it is, in part, genuinely funny. We see how the characters react when confronted with their hidden selves, or what they're hiding; a dinner table scene where Vince, who has brought home his son, who is also an ex-con he has never seen until know, hides from the family he's his son and that he's an ex-con, while the daughter hides/becomes awkward when her skimpy top reveals something else about herself (watch that glance Vince has at her daughter's chest, it's a big laugh). Vince has the most to hide, for some good and silly reasons (he doesn't want to reveal his aspirations for acting, even when a cheery British girl pushes him to audition for the latest De Niro/Scorsese movie), but others have something to hide as well. Comparatively to daughter and mother, the son Tony's fetish of feeding as sexual contact is actually not that bad. It's funny to see his fetish, but not in a mocking tone; De Felitta finds the human notes here, the awkward realization a classmate of Tony's has when she sees him with a hefty woman in a supermarket picking out food.

The big question comes as to what Vince is really doing when he's going out for his "Card" games (it's really an acting class, led by a very amusing Alan Arkin who states simply "No pauses, no more pauses!"), and how his wife, antsy and almost typical Italian housewife Joyce (very funny and sexy Julianna Marguiles) will react, especially with such a hot number as this mysterious guy supposedly helping Vince make a new toilet in the backyard. De Felitta keeps the tension and humor rising in what is basically all in one day and night (though in the second half of the film) and the acting and writing is splendid here. So that by the time the big explosive climax on the sidewalk at night happens, we know everything will unravel, and it will be dramatic and hilarious, sometimes within the same sentence! It's rare to have that combination but this film has it.

It also helps that Andy Garcia gives a surprising performance. He's often seen in films as a tough guy or without much of a sense of humor (see him in the Oceans Eleven movies as the one character), but here he shows how real he can be as a father of a family with a lot of problems and no real good reason why he can't just come out to say what he needs to, except of course for the truth being stranger than fiction. At the same time that he can be level-headed and down to earth with Emily Mortimer's Molly (a breath of fresh air following a less than satisfying turn in Harry Brown), Garcia leads the pack with the comedy in the film. When he goes into the audition and a) does a Marlon Brando imitation that brings the house down, and b) makes up an "improv" as if he were acting tough in his prison guard position, we see in the right role Garcia can be one of the funniest actors out there.

Another plus: City Island, it's one-mile stretch of land filled with people tagged as either muscle-suckers or clam diggers, looks great here, if somewhat (though spot-on) a little suburban enclave. 7.5/10

Brilliant ... just BRILLIANT!

[bwdude · 9/10 · 28 December 2009]

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 !!!

a family with secrets, nothing distinguishable

[MLDinTN · 6/10 · 28 December 2010]

I've seen several films about dysfunctional families with secrets and this movie offers nothing new to the mix. It stars Andy Garcia, as prison guard Vince, whom is secretly taking acting classes. Him and his wife seem to argue a lot. His son't secret is that he likes fat women and watching them eat. That was the best part of the film because it is so quirky, the only laughs of the movie. His daughter has been kicked out of college and is working as a stripper to earn enough money to go back to school. Then there is Vince's secret son, a prisoner he bails out. He brings the son, Tony, home and employs him to build a bathroom.

So as you can see, there's a lot of secrets, but it's nothing new or great.

FINAL VERDICT: It was OK, but I don't think I'll recommend it, too many other movies out there.

Tries way too hard to be 'quirky'

[alsation72 · 3/10 · 6 May 2011]

Its almost as though someone has tried to emulate all the facets of "The Royal Tenenbaums", but here the quirky characters are somehow stale and contrived.

The story revolves around Andy Garcia's character, a prison guard and a pretty awful human being. When he bangs into the back of a stationary car he bullies the victim with no shame. In the past he had left a woman who was pregnant with his baby, and when this son turns up in his prison the real drama starts.

Although many people hail this film as some ingenious piece, it is way too saccharine and the coincidences far too unlikely. The son in the family, for example, has a fetish about obese women eating; and wow the woman across the road just happens to web-cast herself on the internet doing just that.

The story unfolds with enough yelling to make Moonstruck seem sedate but ultimately it comes across as a corny little outing. Don't bother with it.

So much more than your average 'dysfunctional family' movies...

[rooprect · 14 October 2011]

I almost didn't bother watching this film after reading that it was about a dysfunctional family. I mean, jeez, how many dysfunctional family movies can Hollywood put out & continue to make money? The only reason why I decided to watch this was because it was on sale for $2 in the Blockbuster bargain bin.

Best $2 I've spent in a long time.

This isn't your average comedy about family members bickering. It's a very well-crafted morality play that isn't just about family but about secrets that we all keep in our lives. Carefully planned like a Shakespearean comedy, each character has his/her own secret, and all the secrets coincide to create mayhem in everyone's lives. It's not just a cute comedy about family, but rather it can be viewed as a farcical commentary on fear, paranoia and the comedies of errors that spring up as a result of our ridiculous attempts to hide who we really are. Shakespeare truly would've been proud.

If you live in the USA, drop everything this instant & go down to your nearest Blockbuster where you can find this DVD for $2. Chances are it'll be the best $2 you've spent, too.

A hilarious character study that truly shines.

[MetalAngel · 7/10 · 29 August 2010]

There's something I really enjoy about films focusing on dysfunctional families and it's the fact that it leaves a lot of room for character development...and character development, it must be said, is one of the principal decisive factors for a great movie. Most independent films nowadays thrive on this, as a matter of fact; and, I mean, who doesn't enjoy a movie that works as a character study where the main character is as round as can be? Where his convictions and manner of thinking come full circle and are affected by the events unfolding on screen? Raymond de Felitta's latest "City Island" is exactly that: a film that functions because of its characters and not because of the events. I can imagine film buffs and film students dissecting this movie from head to toe in the attempt of deeply analyzing the character changes within.

The movie deals with Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia), a prison guard whose life seems stagnant and uneventful. Vince lives in City Island, a colorful adhesion to Brooklyn, a small fishing city where there's a distinct line between the natives and the outsiders, and where the natives are VERY willing to establish their power and domain over the sea-kissed land. To save himself from utter boredom from his dysfunctional family, Vince moonlights as an actor, taking classes from a politically incorrect teacher (Alan Arkin) and trying to audition for his first role on a Martin Scorsese film alongside with Robert De Niro. Vince is an exceptional character: he wouldn't look out-of-place in "The Godfather"; he has the accent, the slang, the moves and the motivation. He looks like some dude from a gangster movie, but he's actually a good-hearted man who cares for his family (even though it takes some analyzing to discover this), who's mild as a prison guard, and who reads Woolf's "Orlando" while nobody's watching him. He's just like any other human being: born to play the role he's living but having trouble adapting to his true life.

His wife, Joyce (Julianna Marguiles) is a phone operator who feels her life as the expected suburban wife to be too much to handle. She lives up to her role as the Italian-American wife but her sturdy, metallic personality hides a deeper, more poignant desire to outstand. Vince's two teenage children are your typical, troubled and confused kids: there's Vince Jr. (Ezra Miller), who's infatuated with terribly obese girls, and Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido, Andy Garcia's true daughter) who's been kicked off her university scholarship and now works as a seedy stripper to pay off her school tuition. One day Vince discovers Tony (Steven Strait) just got into prison for grand theft auto and immediately recognizes him to be his son from a past flame; Tony has filed for parole, but he has no family to accept the responsibility, so Vince takes him into his home (without revealing his true identity as his father) in an attempt to establish a bond. Along comes Molly (Emily Mortimer), who Vince meets in his acting class, and she becomes his confidante, sharing all of his secrets and smooth-talking him into accepting his responsibility.

What follows is a little over an hour and a half of hilarious events that make Vince and his family come full circle into accepting each other (with their respective quirks) and maturing. The acting is pitch-perfect: Andy Garcia and Julianna Marguiles shine in their respective hard-headed roles which must come to terms with each other by the end of the film. Like I said before, De Felitta listens and ponders his characters to perfection, and the actors carry out their performances to a tee.

There's a scene which makes the audience ponder: Alan Arkin is teaching his acting students that pauses are unnecessary when acting and that a character should not pause when delivering his lines but rather make them come out as a spontaneous reaction to the screenplay. Vince listens to the advice with interest but soon learns, via the poignant events he's undergoing with his family, that pausing to reflect upon what is being said is the ONLY way to effect a perfect symbiosis between the character and the actor's personality; his pausing to reflect on his character will eventually lead to one of the most interesting casting sessions he'll ever have.

The movie's straight-out hilarious. There's two scenes overall (a scene early on where the entire family's having a family dinner and a final cathartic scene where all the truths are discovered) that are flat-out outrageous...but it's the actors' control over their characters and their skillful performances that raise the story out of common melodrama and comedy into something resonant of greatness.

The film has its flaws: for one, it's slightly uneventful and (apart from Garcia's and Marguiles' characters) many of the characters achieve a rapid and unsatisfactory catharsis. This can all be overlooked, though, because De Felitta aims his movie to be a character study rather than a successful exercise in plot. Besides, the film's somewhat dark and intelligent comedy is very refreshing and is bound to have you entertained for quite a while.

The score by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek (a favorite composer of mine) is also very good. If you're familiar with Kacmarek's scores ("Finding Neverland", "Unfaithful", "Evening") you'll know that his music is somewhat heart-breaking, reflective and poignant. To have one such score as a background to the seriously funny events and dialogue going on screen is nothing short of satirical and genius and one can't help but appreciate the finer point it makes.

See the movie. You're bound to have a good time. Rating: 3 stars out of 4!

A perfect dysfunctional family, with emphasis on "fun"

[imdb-3022 · 9/10 · 10 March 2010]

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.

Improbable but likable

[RickManhattan · 6/10 · 9 December 2009]

The series of improbable coincidences are just too many and contrived to make this a movie to recommend for anyone unless she/he is looking for pure escape. This is like a jigsaw puzzle that a 2-year-old could assemble, not one of those 1000-piece babies. There is too much contrived plot for the amount of dramatic geography, and the actors are really better than this. I don't get the City Island angle at all: other than the movie-tryout feature that could be in a few cities, this film could have been set anywhere else in the country. The deus-ex-machina of landing a name role in a top movie is simply over the top, and casting directors must cringe at the scene at the tryout that is utterly unbelievable.

Nevertheless it's a good romp worth seeing for a fairly snappy script. Note to hairdressers and directors: never, ever cast a female with bangs: the fall of the hair is different in every cut, so the movie's seams stand out egregiously.

Island Deluxe!!!

[meeza · 10/10 · 13 March 2010]

This movie "City Island" will take any city by storm! Writer-Director Raymond De Fellita's engaging & entertainment gem has been transported to my fantastical island of quality film-fare. Cuban-American thespian icon Andy Garcia stars as Vince Rizzo, a New York prison guard (I mean correctional officer) who resides in a New York suburban island called… see movie title. Vince has always aspired to be an actor but he has never told his family of his "wanna-be" thespian affairs. Julianna Margulies plays Vincent's "good wife" (just had to do it, it was too good) Joyce; in reality Joyce is not too good and has smoking passions of her own, but nevertheless she is the fervent mother of the Rizzo clan. Ezra Miller plays Vince Jr., the Rizzo teenage kid that has some hefty passions of his own that are unknown to his family. Dominik Garcia-Lorido, Andy's real-life daughter, plays daughter Vivian; a college student whose financial tuition difficulties have stripped her of all her money so she decides to be a stripper, of course not providing that naked truth to her family. And then we get a strait man enter the picture, that would be in the form of Steven Strait who portrays Tony Nardella, a convict prisoner who Vince takes under his wing to the Rizzo residence because of a deep secret; to be strait with you he just might be Vince's lovechild. Emily Mortimer plays Molly, a lonely acting student who Vince befriends. And we even get another Alan Arkin sighting in a dysfunctional family film, which is always a welcome. Arkin plays Vince & Molly's acting teacher. All this Rizzo secret madness is wrapped up into a convoluted, but yet, engaging narrative that you will most certainly adore. All the performances are first-rate! But the acting-god father of the group is definitely highlighted by Andy Garcia's charismatic & whimsical starring performance as Vince Rizzo. He belongs in Oscar Island at next year's Academy Awards with a Best Actor nomination. Marguiles was marvelous as Joyce, and Strait was straight as an arrow with his thespian work as Tony. And of course, much felicidades goes out to Writer-Director Raymond De Fellita for his comedic-delicious functional script on a dysfunctional New York family and his functional direction of the side-splitting narrative. So my friends, grab on to your cinematic passport and get on that pleasurable movie cruise to "City Island". ***** Excellent

Not bad, not great, mostly entertaining, but containing one disgraceful element

[david-946-201304 · 6/10 · 6 July 2023]

I enjoyed this movie, and felt it deserved a rating of between 6 and 7, but one pretty irritating thing nudged me in the direction of the lower number. There were at least a couple points in the movie (not going to specify so as to avoid the inclusion of spoilers), in particular at times which were supposed to be emotionally moving, that the music blatantly copied a very famous Chinese song which was popularized by Teresa Teng (Deng Lijun), namely "The Moon Represents My Heart." However, no mention of this was to be found in the credits. Instead, full credit for the music and orchestration was claimed by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek and Dylan Maulucci. That's on them and them alone, as it's likely that no one else involved with the movie had any clue about it. Makes me wonder how much of the rest of "their" music was pilfered. Lazy, disgraceful and unnecessary.

Name a better film for the first quarter of 2010

[davdecrane · 9/10 · 27 March 2010]

Plotted somewhat like a farce but as emotionally resonate as the best comedy-dramas, City Island is most aptly described, simply and literally, as wonderful. The cast is unfailingly strong with producer Andy Garcia giving himself the meatiest role – to great effect. A few too many "dems" and "dose" may lace his New York accent but he is funny, sincere, frustrated and perseverant in a wide panoply of scenes with actors who have either been TV-type cast (Juliana Margulies), indie-film type cast (Emily Mortimer) or not yet had a real chance to really strut their stuff (Steven Straight, Dominik Garcia-Lorido, and a promising Ezra Miller). Alan Arkin pops in with his usual world-weary Weltanshauung but it plays wonderfully here.

Still, you can see good acting in a number of films (though not an ensemble as strong as this). What separates City Island from the comedy-drama mainland is a story that is both fantastical and yet credible. The premise of what befalls this particular prison guard is a little over-the-top, as are the nonstop (funny) family feuds, but it all feels real. The story detours into little tide pools of drama for each character and here, too, every subplot provides laughs – and it all comes together in a tsunami of comedy at the end, true to its farcical roots. But there's a surprisingly strong current of emotion too in a finale that argues secrets are probably best revealed when you feel least safe in doing so.

The best film I've seen to date this year.

Above average comedy-drama

[zmilorad · 7/10 · 31 January 2011]

I always prefer more realistic, real life situation comedies, like City Island, than exaggerated comedies like Hangover or Tropical Storm. This movie has a perfect balance of comedy and drama, and it will bring you the full scale of emotions.

Andy Garcia is great in this movie, it has a very interesting plot also, and the climax is just brilliant. The story follows alienated suburb family with a lot of secrets, which results in comic situations, especially when father, who works like a prison guard discovers that one of the prisoners is his long forgotten son.

Give it a chance, and you won't regret it.

A Perfect Film

[robshownews · 10/10 · 7 March 2010]

It's a rare, exhilarating experience to see a film and not find a single false note within. This is one of the most well written, perfectly acted, impeccably directed movies I have seen in a long, long while. It has the feeling of comforting familiarity, and yet is surprising at EVERY moment, taking your expectations and turning them in the most interesting and unique ways. As the basis for the story has the potential to be unbelievable and over the top, it could have been a disaster in the wrong hands, but very early on you find yourself feeling so 'happy' with what transpires, that you are completely drawn in by the brilliance that's displayed. Achingly funny, and sweet without being cloyingly sentimental, it is an amazing piece of work. I implore you to see it, and tell your friends about it. This is a movie that deserves a wide audience. It is classified as 'quirky', which it most certainly is, but COMPLETELY accessible. In creating the specific world of 'City Island', Raymond De Felitta has given us a touchstone of universal emotions. Secrets, lies, mis-communication, love, and most of all, family. I URGE you to see this film. It is truly special.

An imperfect family on a small NY island

[TheHrunting · 7/10 · 21 June 2011]

This is a personal story about secrets: hiding them, sharing them. From the son who's interested in kinky stuff, the daughter with a racy job, to the father who sneaks off to no one in the family knows where. Everyone here has got one and it's high time they come out instead of ducking away.

On a small fishing island a corrections officer named Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) notices someone of familiarity called Tony (Steven Strait) that got transferred to the prison he works at. He knew the young man's mother and decides to take him into his home on good faith from a stipulation in his sentence called provisional parole. Tony absorbs the vociferous and argumentative family with reserve, as this is just another temporary place and nothing more. The daughter is in town visiting from school but plays referee, and the rebellious son is enrolled in high school but never attends. This is your typical dysfunctional family with outbursts and sarcasm to express themselves instead of "good mornings," "how are yous" and who could forget "have a nice day" except them.

"City Island" isn't really selling you something you might not have seen before and is a little coincidental at times, but gives a little bit of hope to those people who are in the same situation or are on the verge of getting there. This is a light drama with distinct characters that feel and breath the part. This comes with a few chuckles from some puns and in-jokes to other films. The Rizzos seem to have grown sick of each other but are still hanging in there to make it work because deep down inside they care but have a weird and aggressive way of showing it in loud New York fashion. There are some learning experiences, such as finding out that hiding from one another creates more space, instead of embracing each other for their own distinctions and imperfections. The characters managed to slightly grow from the outset and head towards the direction of a more comfortable life. Just because things didn't work out the way you originally envisioned, doesn't mean you have to give up or grow spiteful as you have your support group to fall back on: your family. Yep, those folks who aren't going away. Use what you got, or miss out. (Also submitted on Cinema Freaks, http://docuniverse.blogspot.com)

"City Island"

[colinrgeorge · 4/10 · 6 April 2010]

I don't think competent indie directors are in any short supply; what worries me is the state of "independent" screen writing. Where are the passion projects? Where are the radically unconventional and anti-commercial controversy-magnets? Narratively and comedically, we can do better than "City Island."

See, the time has long since passed that art house film-making was about getting big ideas on the big screen. Maybe as consumers, that business model has lost its value given that weird, offbeat, and counter-mainstream content is readily available on home video or at the push of a button. Now, especially for the little guy, it's all about inking a distribution deal, which means independent films have a few looming successes over their head. If you want to generate studio interest in an independently financed project, buzz films like "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Juno" are exactly who you want to be compared to. The movie businessmen factor those comparisons in heavily when formulating their equation for the bankability of your indie.

For filmmakers, this seems to mean that "Little Miss Sunshine" and the like are to be used as roadmaps in writing their films, with readymade archetypes to be pilfered for maximum profitability. You can't tell me year after year that filmmakers are just burning to tell the story of their quirky, dysfunctional families—It's just an insofar successful business model, and I'm tired of it.

The exact reason I go to the art house is to see filmmakers take risks that Hollywood wouldn't, and when you take that dynamic away, you're left with bland, marginally distinct stories that have little to no reason to be told. What's going on in "City Island" works, to an extent, from a directorial standpoint, a visual standpoint, and a performance standpoint—but from a screen writing standpoint, you should be able to generate a compelling list of reasons why someone would want to sit through your movie. If "Andy Garcia" and "Alan Arkin" make your top three, your story probably needs work.

"City Island's" story is about as complex as your average half-hour sitcom. The Rizzo family's inability to communicate leads to 'comic' situations and misunderstandings, like Garcia's patriarch keeping the profile of an adulterer so he can take acting classes, his college daughter's soon to be not-so-secret strip gig, or his smart-aleck son's fetish for plus-sized women. Their vices are so pedestrian that I couldn't possibly care how they work them out.

The dialogue isn't any better. It's often considered tacky when the title of a film is spoken aloud, and "City Island" devotes an entire monologue to it—And if even Emily Mortimer can't sell it, you're looking at a rewrite situation. "City Island," she says. "The two words stand in stark contrast to each other," and proceeds to explain exactly how. For God's sake, really? You think I don't naturally comprehend the ironic dichotomy of the title? I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but it's not clever. It's indulgent and condescending.

But I'm being a little harsh. There's nothing especially wrong with "City Island" other than that it's creatively defunct. If you haven't seen a dozen movies like it, maybe it comes across as charming. For me though, Raymond De Felitta's film feels calculated where it should feel human. The Rizzos don't feel like four real people, they feel like salesmen hawking their artificial lives directly to a studio whose definition of "independent comedy" is as rigid as "horror" or "western."