"City Island" chronicles several hectic days in the loud-but-loving life of the Rizzos, an Italian family in one of New York's most underpublicized communities, a 1-square-mile island "fishing village" located at the end of Long Island Sound, within the borough of the Bronx.
Little heralded and somewhat old-fashioned (with a few rewrites, the story could be set in any decade of the motion picture era), "City Island" has become a word-of-mouth success in the few markets in which it has opened, stirring hope within the filmmakers that their movie might find the huge audience that transformed "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" into a sleeper hit in 2002.

That's a comparison that will either have you heading toward the Ridgeway Four (the exclusive home of "City Island" in Memphis) or racing in the opposite direction. Me, I found "City" more enjoyable than "Greek." Written and directed by New York's Raymond De Felitta (the son of novelist Frank De Felitta, author of "Audrey Rose"), the movie won me over, although its rushed screwball finish shot with the handheld cameras that thankfully are absent from much of the rest of the movie was a disappointment.

Andy Garcia (one of the film's producers) stars as Vince Rizzo, a prison guard he prefers the term "correctional officer" who nurtures secret dreams of being an actor. He locks himself in the family bathroom with a Brando biography instead of a copy of Playboy, and sneaks off at night to acting classes, telling his wife, Joyce, (Julianna Margulies) that he's headed to a poker game. At his classes, he finds a soul mate (Emily Mortimer), a pretty student with secrets of her own.

The Rizzos' daughter (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) is a college student whose parents don't know she earns money as a stripper. The teenage son (Ezra Miller) is a wiseacre with a fetish for fat women. New to the household is a paroled stickup artist (Steven Strait) who moves in to help Vince build a backhouse. Only Vince knows that this frequently shirtless hunk is his son from a pre-Joyce relationship.
"City Island" resembles a Norman Lear television comedy: It's "realistic" but not exactly naturalistic. Still, the characters are likable and believable in the context of the frequently funny story, which apparently was inspired by some simple ideas that you may have heard first from your mother: One lie leads to another, and honesty is the best policy.
By John Beifuss
( GoMemphis.com, Thursday, April 29, 2010)

"City Island" is named for a distinctive piece of geography - a small island community in the Bronx - but it's really set in more familiar territory: Sitcom land.
As it turns out, that's not such a bad thing.
The new comedy by writer-director Raymond De Felitta centers on the Rizzos, a family who communicate chiefly by arguing - kind of like the Barones on "Everybody Loves Raymond," only without the pauses for commercials. In the rare moments when they're not bickering, they're hiding secrets from one another.
And when it comes to secrets, the Rizzos have some beauts. Father Vince (Andy Garcia), a prison guard ("corrections officer," he insists), tells wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies) that he's out playing poker, when he's really taking acting lessons. She's convinced he's having an affair and starts thinking about having one herself. Daughter Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) has her parents convinced she's still going to college - the first in the family to make it - when she's actually working at a nearby strip club. Son Vinnie Jr. (Ezra Miller) is obsessed with large women, especially the family's obese neighbor.
And they all smoke, even though they tell each other they've quit.
Enter into the picture Tony (Steven Strait), a probation-bound prison inmate whom Vince instantly recognizes as someone from his past and decides to bring home to stay with his family - without telling them or him the truth about their relationship. Soon, one secret after another sneaks out, and the whole, fragile Jenga structure of lies comes crashing down.
Actually, crashing may be too strong a word for it. Like any family in Sitcom land, the Rizzos have layers of love deep beneath the bickering, and it surfaces in odd, endearing and frequently improbable ways.
De Felitta knows all about odd and endearing families. His 2000 autobiographical film "Two Family House" was an affectionate and affecting drama that made you root for and feel good about its mismatched characters.
Just when "City Island" makes you want to say "Enough with the yelling already!" it does, and the characters' stories get softer, less wacky, more nuanced - and more interesting. And, just like a good sitcom, you care about what happens to them in spite of themselves.
By Chris Foran (Journal Sentinel, April 22, 2010)

The real City Island is a fishing village in the Bronx, which makes it almost as unlikely as the characters who populate Raymond De Felitta's dark-edged comedy. No man is an island? In this story, everyone, man or woman, is a walled fortress of paranoia, secrecy, unsatisfied yearnings and anger-at-low-tide, all of which will rise and collapse over the course of what is a very funny film, and one that operates at the sea level of humanity. Quaint. Slightly peculiar.
What seems to attract De Felitta as a writer-director is eccentricity and fractured urbanity; over the past two decades he has made a handful of charming films, including the memorable "Two Family House," most of which deal with characters who cultivate anxieties and predispositions into full-blown catastrophes. It's no surprise, therefore, that native New Yorkers are De Felitta's collective muse.
Vince Rizzo (played by Andy Garcia, who also produced) is a corrections officer, wannabe actor and beleaguered husband. Domestic relations being what they are, he tells his wife, Joyce (Julianna Margulies, looking as hard as press-on nails), that he's going out to play poker rather than admit he's taking an acting class. For her part, Joyce is the personification of matrimonial displeasure: With a hair-trigger temper and an adversarial relationship with cosmetics, she puts all her hopes and dreams into her college-student daughter, Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido), who, unbeknownst to any other Rizzo, has dropped out of school and is working as a stripper.
Not enough? The Rizzos' acerbic son, Vince Jr. (the hilarious Ezra Miller), provides a sarcastic Greek chorus to his family's inanity while running his own clandestine operation: After spying on his rather large neighbor, Denise (Carrie Baker Reynolds), he learns to his delight that she has a chubby-chaser Web site. He's in heaven. But even Vince Jr.'s fatty fetish pales in comparison with the baggage that Dad's towing around: a son he has never met named Tony (Steven Strait), who has just become a guest of the state, inside Vince's place of employment.
Garcia is quite moving as Vince, who's barely in the acting game; his teacher (Alan Arkin) is cynical enough to deflate any aspiring thespian. But he goes on a fateful casting call because one enthusiastic classmate, Molly (Emily Mortimer), neutralizes his innate pessimism. The Molly-Vince equation is refreshing: a romance-free relationship that's about sharing one's secret self. But all the Rizzos have the same problem. One of the amazing things about "City Island" is the realization -- during its small-caliber apocalypse/climax -- of just how many enormous secrets are being harbored by so few people. A stripper. An illegitimate son. Forbidden lust. Illicit smoking. It's enough for a whole season of "All My Children," without the bad acting.
The acting is, in fact, superb and, given the amount of drama per frame, the best current buy for one's movie dollar.
By John Anderson (The Washington Post, Friday, April 9, 2010)

Dir. Raymond De Felitta. 2009. PG-13. 100mins. Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Steven Strait, Dominik Garca-Lorido, Ezra Miller, Emily Mortimer.
Between this film and the Staten Islandset Two Family House, De Felitta has become a veritable bard of New Yorks underrepresented coastal communities. Like the earlier film, City Island sneaks up on you, treating would-be sensationalistic material with a surprising amount of tact and grace. A prison guard on the titular island (a quiet Bronx village on Long Island Sound), Garcias Vince longs for his children to have a shot at college. Disappointed with his career, Vince sees an opportunity for redemption when his long-abandoned son from an earlier relationship, Tony (Strait), turns up at his prison.
Vince gets Tony, who doesnt know his fathers identity, released as a day laborer. Although the new houseguest initially seems like a wild card, hes the only member of the family whos not engaged in a deception. Vince secretly takes acting classes and seems to be inching toward an affair with a fellow student (Mortimer). His daughter (Garca-Lorido) makes ends meet by working at a strip club, while his son (Miller)in the films only poorly modulated threadexplores his interest in women of size. Meanwhile, Vinces wife (Margulies) flirts with the stranger in her house. The complications have the appeal of a classic farce, and if the movies humor requires a suspension of disbelief, the actors are terrific, and theres much pleasure in watching the way the drama redoubles and resolves.
By Ben Kenigsberg (Time Out Chicago / Issue 266 : Apr 17, 2010)

Anchor Bays City Island - starring Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies - continued to be an under-the-radar success story. Going from 45 to 57 screens, the film grossed $259,000. That made for a 30% increase, seeing its per-theatre average actually rise despite a higher screen count ($4,544 vs. $4,422 last weekend). After five weeks, Island has taken in $842,858, and should soon become the first $1 million grosser young Anchor Bays history.
by Peter Knegt (indieWIRE, April 19, 2010)

More good news came care of Anchor Bays City Island - starring Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies - which continued a promising expansion. Going from 26 to 45 screens, the film grossed $211,000. That made for a 47% increase, hanging on to a very sizable portion of its per-theatre average ($4,689 vs. $5,315 last weekend). After four weeks, Island has taken in $522,896, making it the highest grossing film in young Anchor Bays history. It will expand again to eight more markets next weekend, hitting 60 screens overall.
by Peter Knegt (indieWIRE , April 11, 2010)

Raymond De Felittas City Island - a big winner at last years Tribeca Film Festival - opened on two theaters in NYC and LA this weekend, and while that screen count obviously benefits it, it managed the second best per-theatre-average of any film this weekend behind Greenberg. Starring Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies, the family drama grossed $35,000, averaging $17,500 and becoming distributor Anchor Bays strongest opening ever.
by Peter Knegt ( , March 21, 2010)

After finding the highest debut in distributor Anchor Bays history last weekend, Island - starring Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies - went from 2 to 7 screens this weekend (adding Miami, Dallas, Philadelphia and Toronto to its original NY and LA markets), and managed a reasonable 53% uptick in grosses. Taking in $49,000, the film averaged $7,000 and took its total to $92,673. For Anchor Bay - which has never had a film gross over $300,000 - these are some very promising numbers.
by Peter Knegt (indieWIRE , March 28, 2010)