Do you keep secrets from your family? Do you think your family keeps secrets from you? Everybody has something they hide or want to say to their loved ones, but I bet your family isn’t as messed up or awkward as Andy Garcia’s family in City Island. Set in the small town known as City Island where you’re either a clam digger (born and raised there) or mussel sucker (moved there), the film takes a look into the family life and the intricacies of tradition, relationships, and dreams. Andy Garcia plays Vince Rizzo who is a correctional officer with both a past and future that he hasn’t shared with anyone in a long time, including his wife, Joyce, played by Julianna Margulies. Even after years of marriage and raising two kids, he never found a good opportunity to talk about his past which he thought was out of his life forever. One day, his past showed up at work and set things in motion to change his future. Vince and Joyce Rizzo live with their son (Ezra Miller) who plays the awkward teen role to the t with a very interesting and weird fetish you would never expect. Their daughter (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) is off at college but reluctantly comes home to spend time with her family for spring break.
There are small secrets evident from the very beginning like the fact that both parents are still smoking even though they promised each other that they would quit or that the Vivian, the daughter, isn’t actually going to school but instead working a particular job in order to pay for her tuition which she lost but was too scared to tell her parents. The secrets, or lies, quickly escalate as you get deeper into the lives of each of the characters. You also start learning about some dreams and fantasies that some of the family members have but are too embarrassed to tell anybody else (even their own family). You find yourself rooting for each of them as they dabble into new areas they never thought they would attempt. As most families do, the Rizzos live with each other’s secrets without talking with one another about them. However, once a couple new characters are thrown into the mix, it’s as if someone throws a wrench into a machine and everything starts to go haywire. It’s interesting the things you say to complete strangers rather than the people you live with everyday.
For me, the movie started off slow and I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this smaller film but as you get further into this tangled web of family lies and stories, there are plenty of funny and entertaining scenes in this dark comedy and you just want to learn more and more about each subplot and side story and find out what’s going to happen next. All of the tension and silent conversations that the family members wanted to have all along but could never start come out in one big explosion at the end of the movie which is well worth the slow start. City Island is very well written, funny, and has such a real family feel, you can believe that these people are your neighbors. I highly recommend the film and hope it gets some good exposure to be shown to a wider market. If it’s in your area, check it out.
Tags: Andy Garcia, City Island, Dominik Garcia-Lorido, Ezra Miller, Julianna Margulies
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
