3 Stars Directed by: Raymond De Felitta Starring: Andy Garcia, Alan Arkin, Emily Mortimer Rated PG-13, 100 min.
A charming movie about a dysfunctional family from a fishing village in the Bronx, City Island is a quintessential low-budget delight. Much like Little Miss Sunshine, the film endears the audience to an unconventional group of people that just happen to be related.
Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia, in one of his most charismatic roles to date) is the patriarch, a prison guard who is too afraid to articulate his thespian dreams to his strong-willed wife, Joyce (Julianna Margulies). Daughter Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) is a stripper who actively hides her job from her parents, and their teenage son Vinnie (Ezra Miller) spends his afternoons looking at erotic sites featuring very plus-sized women. Tony (Steven Strait), an ex-convict who Vince decides to take in because “he knew his mother,” adds to this colorful mix and is responsible for shaking things up and exposing everyone’s lies.
The eccentricity of their desires creates a sharp contrast with the utter normalcy of their lives on paper. A shot of a middle-aged Vince in line for his first audition is not only heartwarming but also telling of the movie as a whole. This story is as much about family as it is about people who are willing to pursue things that they shouldn’t want or shouldn’t do. The secrecy and consequent tension that this inevitably generates acts as the engine that moves the plot forward.
Strangely enough, a convoluted storyline does not salvage the movie from being predictable. Thankfully, the strong group of actors softens the fall. Margulies’ performance is nothing short of extraordinary, and Garcia’s rendition of a disillusioned man going through his mid-life crisis is as authentic a performance as one could hope for. You will know the ending by the middle of the film, but that doesn't mean you won't enjoy watching it unravel just as you thought it would.
