has a secret fetish for more portly woman and their daughter Vivian is secretly working as a stripper to pay for school. Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a prison guard but secretly aspires to become an actor, a masquerade so embarrassing to him it leads his wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies) to believe he is having an affair. The residents of this picturesque hidden jewel consist of two groups, "mussel suckers" who are immigrants to the island and "clam diggers," who like the Rizzos, have resided there for generations. By way of an introductory voice-over narration we meet the Rizzo family who reside on City Island, a tiny island community in the Bronx. Boasting the same underlying strengths by way of actors and writing, both are perplexingly entertaining for movies with such a humble story arc and could easily be dismissed as pompous Oscar bait. Oddly, I found the same response to a very different film Frost/Nixon. What elevates this dark comedy to something compelling and infinitely memorable are the universally strong performances, confident direction and most importantly - one of the best scripts in years. In many ways, City Island is a traditional dysfunctional family melodrama, and it revels in that mold. Out on DVD today, it is one of the best movies of the year.
Like a number of smaller films this year such as The Kids are All Right, Please Give, Winter's Bone and the first two films of the Millennium Trilogy, City Island is one of this years sleeper indie hits and it is easy to see why.
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