I don’t know why exactly, but comedic movies about dysfunctional families of eccentric people always seem to fall flat for me, even as they seem to resonate with everybody else. I suppose it’s my one blind spot. (Well, that and mimes, an art form that continues to elude me.) Everybody loved Little Miss Sunshine, for example, while I just shook my head at what looked like weirdness to me instead of “offbeat” humor and “quirky” characters that I were assured were “endearing”. Maybe it’s because I come from such a normal family, I don’t know. The one exception I can think of is The Royal Tenenbaums, a movie I adored, but I think that had more to do with the great cast, including a fantastic performance by Gene Hackman and perhaps my favorite performance of Gwyneth Paltrow’s career, and less to do with the dysfunctional-ness.
At any rate, my fear with City Island was that I was in for another “funny” movie about a “dysfunctional” family, a sure recipe for more head scratching by your loyal reviewer. But the film, written and directed by Raymond De Felitta, wisely gravitates towards drama more so than comedy. Consequently, the eccentricities somehow resonate more. The characters become more sympathetic. We laugh with them more than at them. It’s an important distinction. The gravitas raises the level of the film.
The movie stars Emily Mortimer as…okay, the movie stars Andy Garcia. It’s just that I find Emily Mortimer so damn adorable that it’s tough for me to want to give credit elsewhere. In this case, however, I am happy to do so. Garcia is terrific, even though there are moments when you feel he is trying to be either a) Al Pacino, or b) Robert DeNiro. But I think that’s just his unfortunate lot in life. Andy Garcia is neither of those guys, yet close enough to remind you of them. Interestingly, the funniest part of the movie, the one genuine laugh-out-loud moment, is when he is doing a Marlon Brando impression. This one’s on purpose and it’s hysterical.
Garcia plays Vince Rizzo, a prison guard (“corrections officer”, he is quick to point out), who comes across his long-lost son Tony (Steven Strait) among a crop of new inmates. Rizzo had a fling 24 years ago with Tony’s mother and left during her pregnancy. Feeling responsible, Rizzo takes custody of Tony and brings him home. This is where things begin to get interesting with Tony and Rizzo’s – here it is – dysfunctional family. Meanwhile, Rizzo is taking acting classes from Alan Arkin (look for a hilarious scene where Arkin’s character laments Brando’s introduction of method acting into the cinema) and meets a young would-be actress played by the adorable Emily Mortimer (did I mention I find her adorable?). There are lots of things that go on – more than can be covered here, including Rizzo’s college-age daughter taking a job as a stripper and his teenage son’s fetish for obese women, plus a lot of sexual tension between Tony and Rizzo’s wife (Julianna Margulies) – but suffice it to say that it all somehow works. Maybe it’s the gravitas. Whatever it is, I found myself interested. Although it’s not a great movie, it’s at least a step up from the “offbeat” dysfunctional stuff that always leaves me scratching my head.
7.5/10