Review of City Island (2009) by Aaron J — 18 May 2010

City Island is all about the secrets that families keep...from one another.

Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a Corrections Officer that tells his wife he is playing poker while he is actually going to acting classes. Joyce Rizzo (Julianna Margulies) is Vince's wife who is suspicious of Vince's poker games. Vince Jr is into "BBW's" (Google it...I dare you). Vince's daughter Vivian (Dominik García-Lorido) is working as a stripper because she lost her scholarship. Oh...and they are all smoking and hiding that from each other. Vince also has a bigger secret in the fact that he met his long lost son, Tony (Steven Strait), who he fathered while a young man, who is incarcerated in the prison that he works at.

Vince meets Molly (Emily Mortimer) at his acting class who has secrets of her own as well. Molly fosters confidence in Vince and encourages him to go out for an audition where he does very well.

This movie is really very good. Andy Garcia produced this movie and put in a good turn in his role as Vince. Watching Andy Garcia interact with his family, especially his wife played by Julianna Margulies.

The role of Vince's acting coach Michael Malakov, played by Alan Arkin is very underplayed. While he was good while on screen, he didn't have too much time and I would have enjoyed a bit more of him.

I'm not too sure what the point of Vince Jr was. Yep, he had his own secret but he just didn't seem to mesh with the rest of the family. Instead, it seemed like he was just there to bicker with his sister.

The film also captured City Island as a unique oasis in the city of New York. I had never heard of the place before this film but it was captured as a small, tightly knit community that could be fun to be a part of.

The Rizzo family is portrayed as you would expect a New York city family to be portrayed with over the top mannerisms and great accents.

The visuals in this film are very straight forward...no special effects to speak of...but instead a nice calm and attractive movie.

The movie is a little bit slow to start, setting up all of the characters and their secrets but it really does get rolling along well about 40 minutes in and delivers a good ending.

Oh...and a bit of trivia for you...Andy Garcia is really the father of Dominik García-Lorido who plays his daughter in film.

HOT GIRL ALERT - Julianna Margulies is a super hot cougar that has a nice scene with Steven Strait in her car but the hot girl award for this movie goes to Dominik García-Lorido who plays a stripper in this film. She has several different scenes where she displays her body while dancing around a stripper pole.

So...I give this film an 8 out of 10. It is a sleeper hit that would be enjoyed by a wide audience if it had a bit more press and a wider release. Go see it!

Enjoy!