City Island

This movie intrigued me because of the glowing reviews it received at the Tribeca Film Festival. I was curious if it would live up to the hype. The entire cast is a delight. The story takes place in City Island, a gorgeous setting in the Bronx. It revolves around a family that has very poor communication and as a result each member is hiding one or more secrets. Joyce (Juliana Margulies) suspects her husband Vince (Andy Garcia) of having an affair, while the real reason behind his "poker nights" is quite fascinating. Molly (Emily Mortimer) shines as a whimsical, passionate friend who has her own dark story that unfolds. This is a plot line that includes a *, Hollywood, and prison...yet it doesn't veer into the overly quirky. This is a family with real problems who at the heart of it have sincere love for one another. It is not a perfect movie, but it is a joy to see how the various story lines come together.

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 * 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.

I thought this film was hysterical. Knee slappingly funny! I've never seen a group of characters get themselves so tied up in knots in the plot like this before. Definitely a dysfunctional family group, each person's dysfunctional secret being held by the least likely person in the ensemble. Each actor hits the right notes in their portrayal of their character, the setting of the location and exposition of the family dynamic prepare us for the comedy to come. I agree that it has some similarities to Little Miss Sunshine, but I found this film to be much funnier, maybe because I live in New York City and I've seen the reality of these characters in action! I hope a lot of people get out to see this film because it really deserves to be seen. The cinematography is quite nice for a small picture such as this, and the whole package makes for a satisfying viewing experience. Perfect adult humor, and that's really hard to find at the movies!

Just saw this movie, and I think it's very good. It's started in the middle of some middle-class family, where nothing ever happened. Father has no education, wife is a office worker, and two boring children. But few minutes later I just can't stop. Father somehow became actor, his wife try to cheat on him with his unknown son, and children is no better than parents. Characters are true, and I almost knew some of them in real life. They fun or sad, good or bad, they motivation is understandable and I wanted them to be happy. And they learned self and each other and them gave ,e good receipt to make my life happier - talk to each another.

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.

It would not surprise us, if a year from now, Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies are up for leading actor and supporting actress awards along with Raymond De Felitta for this screenplay which he directed and maybe even with the picture itself being nominated for one of those shinny trophies. We are presented with what seems to be a light- hearted story about a working class somewhat quirky family living on City Island which is actually part of the Bronx in New York City. Vince Rizzo ( Andy Garcia ) and his family live in the house his grandfather built and he works in a Westchester Prison as a corrections officer. Julianna Margulies plays his wife Joyce Rizzo, with a perfect Bronx accent and attitude in stark contrast to the radiant, cool and collected "Good Wife" whom you may have seen her in the television series of that name. They have two children, a daughter who is supposed to be away at college but ends up pole dancing in a club, played very well by Andy Garcia's real life daughter actress Dominik Garcia-Lorido and a son (Ezra Miller ) who has an appetite for things on the large side. The biggest hidden secret comes from the Garcia character who has a side to him which gives this veteran actor an opportunity to show the full spectrum of emotion from anger to tenderness. His character as do the others show growth and change as well as revealing their inner feelings. Alan Arkin plays a character that he knows as well as anyone could and not surprisingly nails that role. There is a measured, exaggerated quality to all the people in the movie which allows some good comedic moments A climatic scene with the entire family including two additional characters played by Steven Strait and Emily Mortimer all interact for at least several minutes and is orchestrated extremely well with a palette of emotions from laughter to tears which sums up the experience we believe you will have with this outstanding movie.

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 *, 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

Is this movie worth ten bucks? Is it worth driving to the theater and parking the car? Does it live up to the reviews quoted in the ad? No to all three. The principle problem is the writing, followed by the directing and an unconvincing performance by an acclaimed actor. Some of the characters are hard to understand or like. The movie is about an Italian American family living on a river island near New York City. They live together on a small house lot but supposedly know nothing about each other. That didn't seem likely. The father is a prison guard who secretly wants to be an actor. Even though the character was played by Andy Garcia, an acclaimed actor, this wasn't convincing they way it played out. It's hard to like this character when he spends a lot of time having an emotional affair with a ditsy actress whose behavior doesn't make sense. Several leaden lines are repeated hypnotically through through the movie. The Andy Garcia says his character's name and that he is a "corrections officer" like it is supposed to be some kind of thing. Also something like, "every city needs and island, every person needs a place for quiet contemplation" keeps getting repeated. It doesn't have that much to do with this movie. Whoever wrote this isn't William Shakespeare. One good thing about the movie was its setting, City Island. A former fishing village in the Bronx River, it looks like a New England fishing village surrounded by silver gray water and boats at anchor. Another bright spot is actor Steven Strait who played a long lost relative. He's handsome, charismatic, and a good actor. Overall, I'd wait until this movie comes on TV so you can Tivo it and skip the bad parts.

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.

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 !!!