CITY ISLAND (USA 2009) *
Directed by Raymond De Felitta

Dramas about dysfunctional families provide the opportunity for stars to strut their stuff and show their acting talents.  In the film CITY ISLAND, the star concerned is Andy Garcia.

Garcia plays Vince Rizzo, a life-long resident of CITY ISLAND, a family man with a secret.  The trouble is that the family in reality is quite a normal family – as every family I know has its ups and downs and secrets.  But in this film, the secret Vince is hiding is quite trivial, or rather silly.  He is hiding the fact that he is taking acting lessons on the mainland from his fiery wife, Joyce (Julianna Margulies) who thinks he is having weekly poker games.  Who is more stupid?  The wife or the script, also written by director De Felitta.  At least, later on in the film, she thinks Vince is having an affair.  But when Vince arrives in the family house with a beautiful girl (Emily Mortimer) in tow, the audience is led to believe that he has no clue that the wife will get suspicious.  Anyway, as far as plot implausibilities go, CITY ISLAND reaches the limit.

For a film set on a city island, nothing is seen of the quiet fishing community.  The atmosphere of a closely knit community is absent and not a single mussel or cockle is in sight.

The film’s comedy is slight but the drama more superficial than interesting.  The climatic scene in which the character Vince reveals all the truths and lies on the ground is the most embarrassing display of bad acting in any acting class.  You think he would have learnt his lesson with his disastrous directorial debut in THE LOST CITY, his project of 17 years, the film that was panned by critics not too long ago.

Apparently, CITY ISLAND garnered the audience award at the Tribeca Film Festival and certain audiences loved the movie and characters.  Perhaps that might be the big secret of CITY ISLAND – as the reason sure astounds me.