City Island (2009)

[metirish]

The Rizzo family out in City Island in the Bronx are all living a life of lies that begin to unravel when Vince (Andy Garcia) brings home a parolee to the family home with little explanation to his family or to the Tony the con.

Andy Garcia is excellent as Vinnie, Julianna Margulies as his wife and Garcia's real life daughter as his movie daughter.

We really liked this comedy drama , maybe part of it was the familiar scenes , City Island is down the road, but the acting here is great and the way the truths start to come out really made this great.

Highly recommended .

[Frayed Knot]

Was better than I thought it was going to be about 15 minutes in.
When it started it had all the makings of one of those films/TV shows that thinks a loud, dysfunctional, and constantly arguing family is funny as long as said family is [insert ethnicity here]. Maybe a lot of people buy into that theory but, if so, I'm not one of them.
This one, while not great, grew into something more.

Didn't realize that was Garcia's daughter.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Garcia's got some fine, fine genes.

[metirish]

Frayed Knot wrote: When it started it had all the makings of one of those films/TV shows that thinks a loud, dysfunctional, and constantly arguing family is funny as long as said family is [insert ethnicity here]. Didn't realize that was Garcia's daughter.

Good point , it could easily have been that.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

WE rented this last nite and were OK with it. Ended like a play with all characters on stage at once with the big reveals. Tony was way too nice and the son way too jaded and snarky for this to really ring true for us. It was very cool to see all the city island scenery: It definitely is another world right here in the city.

[Willets Point]

So my mother grew up in the Bronx and when she was very young a friend of hers bragged that she was going to visit Ireland with her family. My mother retorted, "So what, we go to City Ireland every summer." I still can't help but call it City Ireland myself.

[Guest themetfairy]

D-Dad and I saw this on On Demand tonight. I didn't love it. The acting was top notch, but the characters were long on stupid and just drove me bonkers. It was a well-acted and beautifully filmed soap opera with a happy ending slapped on the end. I just didn't find the story to be satisfying.