City Island

Overview

A typically bland, clean-cut suburban family this motley crew ain't. Within the walls of a deceptively serene weatherboard house in the quaint fishing village of City Island on the outskirts of Manhattan dwell a working-class family engaged in a perpetual game of emotional hide-and-seek. Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a prison guard leading a comfortable but mundane life who harbours a niggling desire to be an actor, a shameful secret he doesn’t dare reveal to his wife (Julianna Margulies). Meanwhile, his wayward daughter Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido), who’s visiting on spring break, keeps sneaking off to her job as a stripper, while the teenage Vince Junior (Ezra Miller) is struggling with an all-consuming fat-girl fetish.

But the real secret lies with Tony (Steven Strait), a charismatic ex-inmate whom Vince Snr brings home to stay with the family for reasons that threaten to dismantle his quiet existence. A random but essential ingredient to season the mix is Emily Mortimer, who plays Molly, a fellow aspiring actor who acts as a catalyst and muse for Vince’s pursuit of his true calling and the revelation of his darkest secrets.

In keeping with the recent slew of kooky indie films about the contemporary, dysfunctional nuclear family, writer/director Raymond De Felitta revels in the oddness of his characters. An endearingly idiosyncratic bunch, the chemistry between these mottled players and exceptional performances by all create an engaging, entirely watchable 100 minutes of cinema. It’s these detailed characterisations that also give the film its originality and save it from the hackneyed tricks of its genre. City Island is a simple story well told, and like the place itself, holds its own as a jagged little gem beside the billowing force of a larger landscape.