City Island
Rating: 7/10
Cast: Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Emily Mortimer, Steven Strait, Alan Arkin
Director: Raymond De Felitta
City Island sees the welcome return of Andy Garcia to the big screen.
He's Vincent Rizzo, a corrections officer and the head of the Rizzo family who live in City Island just over from New York's Bronx district.
Married to his beautiful wife Joyce (ER's Margulies) and with two kids, the Rizzos are dysfunctional in the extreme.
Vince smokes but tells his wife he quit - she does the same; the secrets they keep from each other keep the family momentum fragile but functioning.
Vince is a wannabe actor - and has been since childhood. But rather than share this dream with his wife, he tells her he's off for poker games when he's at acting class - further fuelling her insecurity.
One day at work, Vince finds out one of the inmates is his son Tony from a previous relationship - and upon learning of Tony's mother's death, and without telling him why, Vince brings Tony back to the Rizzo home.
But this generous action serves only as a catalyst to bring the carefully spun web of lies crashing down.
City Island is a delightful treat - primarily because of Garcia. He's so solid in everything he does that when he gets a chance to lead a film you almost forget what a wonderful character actor he is. As the head of the household, he personifies charm and despite the melodramatic nature of the plot, he keeps it all together.
Along with Julianna Margulies, this film has a wonderful cast - including Alan Arkin as Vince's acting class teacher - and a script which is grounded in a degree of reality. It's also a lot funnier than expected -with heated shouting matches at the dinner table giving way to humour when it's least expected.
That said, the best moment comes from Garcia auditioning for a role in a Martin Scorsese film starring Robert De Niro- when he's given the moment to shine, he manages an impression of Brando that may leave you in fits of laughter.
Sure the final airing of the family ills at the end is something akin to Greek tragedy but City Island is a film with heart - even if it's beating a little dysfunctionally.
Watch the trailer for City Island here.
