Movie Summary of City Island by Michael The Moviegoer.
CITY ISLAND = ***1/2
“Relation-Shipwrecks”
“City Island” is something like “Treasure Island” in that we discover real gems of comedic performances by actors we’ve only known before from dramas. Julianna Margulies and Andy Garcia are simply hilarious as a blue-collar married couple raising their kids in an area of The Bronx known as City Island. OK, so the movie’s title could use a bit more snap, crackle and pop. But the film itself pops like a firecracker.
Garcia plays a prison guard in his late 40s with dreams of being an actor. But his low self-esteem causes him to tell his wife he’s out playing poker when he’s really attending acting classes. It’s a classic situation-comedy formula in which one lie leads to another until everyone is caught in a tangled web.
He adds an additional secret to his plate when he discovers a new prison inmate is actually his long lost son and brings him home to live with his family without telling them who he really is. His son is intensely good-looking and eventually both Garcia’s wife and daughter begin to develop romantic fantasies about him.
But as complicated as the plot gets, there is never a dull moment in this delightful and enjoyable film. Even veteran Alan Arkin shows up to steal everyone’s thunder in a scene as Garcia’s acting coach where he hilariously protests against actors who use pauses for dramatic effect. This scene is destined to become a favorite among actors.
DVD Double Feature: This is only the second film I’ve seen by director Raymond de Felitta. The last one was 1999’s charming “Two Family House”. It’s another rich comedy about people in a small suburban New York neighborhood. Michael Rispoli plays a man desperate to realize his dream of opening a local bar despite the objections of his wife. A romantic triangle is created when Rispoli falls for Kelly MacDonald, a neighborhood outcast. “Two Family House” is fresh, original and wonderfully entertaining.
Michael The Moviegoer
