City Island review - According to City Island's harassed hero Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia), the small islet where Raymond De Felitta’s winning comedy is set is one of New York’s best-kept secrets.
A quaint fishing community, its 5,000 residents are divided between traditional natives (“clam diggers”) and interlopers (disdainfully dubbed “mussel suckers”). It’s a place out of time, within sight of Manhattan yet a world apart from its bustle.
Like an Odyssean siren, though, those concrete canyons call to Vince, a prison guard who shamefully hides his dream of becoming an actor from fiery spouse Joyce (Julianna Margulies). That’s not all he’s concealing either. He also has a black sheep son called Tony (Steven Strait), a newly paroled ex-con Vince invites to stay while masking his true provenance.
Vince’s daughter, meanwhile (played by Garcia’s own daughter Dominik Garcia-Lorido) clandestinely moonlights as a stripper. Then there’s her brother Vince Jr. (Ezra Miller), a closet chubbychaser with a thing for his gargantuan neighbour.
All these skeletons inevitably come to light in a neat last reel, though not before Vince – encouraged by acting partner Molly (Emily Mortimer) – has hilariously auditioned for a Martin Scorsese film and Eric Bana-alike Strait has rebuffed advances from Margulies.
Effectively, City is Secrets And Lies with a Noo Yawk accent. But for every unlikely revelation, there is a nugget of truth that steers De Felitta’s film around its occasionally strained plotting into dramatically satisfying waters.
Garcia is terrific as the Brando-obsessed Vince, while Margulies – so good in TV’s The Good Wife – has fun blowing her top as his nagging partner. If there is a weak link here it’s Mortimer, saddled with a secret that makes us turn against her quicker than it takes the Rizzos to start yelling at each other around the dinner table.
City Island review
Andy Garcia keeps it in the family...
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