VividSimon Simply Perfect

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Erik Stuborn Well, well, in this movie are so many coincidences meeting together to be credible, but apparently is one of those movies that Americans love (just look at that score on IMDb, which seems a bit undeserved).***BIG spoiler***A dysfunctional family —that really is not so— in the midst of a lot of happy coincidences that lead them to... well, to the usual place. Four members family, boy, girl, mom, dad; beautiful (and kind of exotic) urban landscape, nice house, everything seems to be wrong but —don't worry, because, as you expected...— it will be fixed, magically.***END of the BIG spoiler***Sometimes wants to be a comedy, but I do not laugh at all, sometimes intended to have the realistic touch of family drama, but fails.To spend an hour and a half lightly, after suspension of disbelief.

spelvini The first thing that may strike the viewer about the excellently-paced inside-joke feature City Island is the voice over of the lead character Vince Rizzo as he relates the history of the island and how it interacts to other inhabitants in the New York area. This isn't much of a digression as it is background on how Vince Rizzo thinks and in retrospect, this particular detail could have been improved to make the most of the theme of the film, which following your heart truthfully is always the easiest road to happiness.On City Island, New York, Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) makes a living as a corrections officer while his wife Joyce Rizzo (Julianna Margulies) holds a job as a secretary as their daughter Vivian (Dominik García-Lorido) attends university upstate. Vince has dreamed of an acting career for years and has memorized all of Marlon Brando's best scenes, while also sneaking away one night a week to take acting classes in the city. When Vince discovers young Tony (Steven Strait) locked up in jail he realizes that the young man is his biological son and has him released in his custody. Pretending to his wife and children that the gesture is based in good faith only, Vince puts Tony to work rebuilding his garage, but Joyce is more than curious, and in more than platonic ways. Meanwhile Vivian has her own secrets, and son Vince Jr. (Ezra Miller) exhibits a young boy's fascination with a next-door neighbor that seems a little too grown up. When Vince is urged by his acting partner Molly (Emily Mortimer) to attend an open call for a film, a surprising opportunity opens up, and Vince finds he must face facts and tell everything.In regards to "happiness", the film seems to want to have its cake, and eat it too. On the one hand it has an excellent cast, all top-notch actors in complete command of their instruments, but who all have to make the most of a thinly script with one or two good ideas that are played into the ground. It's okay though because the movie will bring a smile to your face, even if you might not be in on the inside jokes about what being an actor really means.They say that actors live lives of quiet desperation, always wanting to play the great role that will allow their souls freedom and a chance to proclaim their secret desires to the world. Vince's own repressed desire to act, like "Brando" and involvement with fellow acting student Emily Mortimer's Molly leads him to visualizing a new life for himself, and is leading him into an incipient love affair with the actress.Any actor watching this movie (and it is for actors) will laughingly cringe as he watches Vince audition with an affected Marlon Brando mannerism that has become the identifying joke for many comedians through the years making fun of the actor. Why or how the casting director asks Vince to stay is a mystery, but remains one of the plot points in the film that keep us watching to see just how far this comic love story will carry us.The funny bits of business in the movie make up for the overall lack of structure. This is a comedy of manners, and the family that is reunited at the end is one dysfunctional, but happy union. It's a surprise that this is what the film has been moving toward all the time. At times it alternately feels like so many things. All in all it doesn't hit very hard, and it leaves you with a great feeling.It's too bad that the story line involving Emily Mortimer's acting partner Molly doesn't carry more substance. With Julianna Margulies' affection-starved Joyce Rizzo on the move in a love embrace with a younger man (no spoilers her- you'll know who it is in the first twenty minutes of the movie), we are led to believe that this will be a marriage drama. It's a great turn-around and will surprise you to boot.

Tim Kidner Andy Garcia with a heart? True - here he's an average, flawed but decent and at times vulnerable family man, who has more success communicating with his charges at the correctional facility where he works as a guard than he does with his own family.In a low-key and heart-warming movie, the individual characters radiate individuality - aside of Garcia, (Vince Rizzo) there's his blunt and free-spirited (OK, bossy!) wife, Joyce (Julianna Margulies), college student daughter, who's dropped out to do a spot of stripping and their teenage son, who has a sexual fetish for BBW's...(and he gets to spy on one and meet her!)The family know nothing of each of their individual 'pursuits' - add to the mix Vince's poker sessions with the boys that are actually acting classes, run by that wonderful old sage, Alan Arkin, typically and sardonically treating us to a gentle belittling of his students. British Emily Mortimer sticks to her native accent as Vince's friend, who he gets to slowly confide in. Many will find Garcia's fumbled and over- acted, or under-acted? amateur dramatics very funny, as he hopelessly impersonates every gangster stereotype possible, with Brando's 'method' acting ripe for a swipe.Rizzo also manages to get some cheap, unofficial labour so he can build a bespoke bathroom - who this is, the effect he has on them all and who he turns out to be is a whole extra story, interwoven with the rest. Affectionately filmed in the Bronx, this has a community feel about it and the film's title refers to that place in one's mind and imagination in which to take a break - to think and reflect.What's best about it all is that it's comfortable with itself. It doesn't try too hard - it knows its place and with its affectionate heart, interesting characters, most will find City Island nicely satisfying.

WCBrown This movie will take you down several paths, the individual lives of each member of this crazy, dramatic, dysfunctional family, where at first you think the ends of those paths are obvious, then twists and turns into something completely unexpected. There is drama, humor, and some very touching moments where, honestly, I cried, laughed, disagreed with, agreed with, then shook my head in wonder at the genius and insight of the writers of this story. If you have come from a dysfunctional family (really, who hasn't) and recovered, or not, you will truly appreciate this story at many levels. A refreshing change from the typical Hollywood fare.