Tag: Steven Straight


City Island

September 6th, 2010 — 8:27am

City Island* * * * *
City Island
– sp – It would not surprise us, if a year from now, Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies are up for leading actor and supporting actress awards along with Raymond De Felitta for this screenplay which he directed and maybe even with the picture itself being nominated for one of those shin=ny trophies. We are presented with what seems to be a light- hearted story about a working class somewhat quirky family living on City Island which is actually part of the Bronx in New York City. Vince Rizzo ( Andy Garcia ) and his family live in the house his grandfather built and he works in a Westchester Prison as a corrections officer. Julianna Margulies plays his wife Joyce Rizzo, with a perfect Bronx accent and attitude in stark contrast to the radiant, cool and collected “Good Wife” whom you may have seen her in the television series of that name. They have two children, a daughter who is supposed to be away at college but ends up pole dancing in a club, played very well by Andy Garcia’s real life daughter actress Dominik Garcia-Lorido and a son (Ezra Miller ) who has an appetite for things on the large side. The biggest hidden secret comes from the Garcia character who has a side to him which gives this veteran actor an opportunity to show the full spectrum of emotion from anger to tenderness. His character as do the others show growth and change as well as revealing their inner feelings. Alan Arkin plays a character that he knows as well as anyone could and not surprisingly nails that role. There is a measured, exaggerated quality to all the people in the movie which allows some good comedic moments A climatic scene with the entire family including two additional characters played by Steven Strait and Emily Mortimer all interact for at least several minutes and is orchestrated extremely well with a palette of emotions from laughter to tears which sums up the experience we believe you will have with this outstanding movie. (2009)

Comment » | 5 Stars, Comedy, Drama

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