City Island

             This movie was recommended to me by the mail order movie service.  I thought it could be interesting and threw it on the list.  Once it was over, I was surprised at how much I liked City Island.

                Andy Garcia plays a corrections officer.  While he has been doing his job for years, there has always been a part of him that has wanted to be an actor.  Every week he sneaks off to an acting class claiming he is going to play poker.  His wife is suspicious of these “poker nights” and believes he is actually having an affair.

                While the acting classes may be enough of a secret, it is not the only one in the family.  Everyone believes the daughter is away at college working hard and studying.  In reality she has been kicked out of school and taken a job as a stripper.  Then there is the son.  He has a tendency to look at very “interesting” websites and has a thing for large women.  The next door neighbor is one such woman and he befriends her in an unusual way.

                Finally we have Tony.  He in an innocent by-stander caught in this secretive and feuding family.  What he does not know is he is a secret himself.  Vince sees Tony in jail and figures out Tony is his son from a relationship he had as a young man.  Tony does not know who Vince truly is and Vince’s family does not know another son even exists.  Poor Tony gets brought to Vince’s house and he ends up wrapped up in the family drama while not knowing why he is even there.

                At first glance this would seem like a dreary movie.  It is actually quite funny.  The things that come out of the son’s mouth are hilarious.  What I understand from the bonus footage is a lot of his lines may have been improvisation.  Then there is the guy who plays Tony.  This is worth watching just for him.