City Island

In this sprawling comedy, corrections officer Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) brings a hunky paroled inmate named Tony Nardella (Steven Strait) to his Italian-American family home in the Bronx's City Island community, ostensibly to do some work on the house. But Tony may, in fact, be the illegitimate son Vince sired long before his marriage to Joyce (Julianna Margulies), who knows nothing about this connection. Vince has another secret: while he says he's playing poker, he's actually taking acting classes in Manhattan, where his drama teacher, Michael (Alan Arkin), pairs him with Molly (Emily Mortimer), who urges him to try out for a Martin Scorsese mob movie. Meanwhile, Vince's daughter Vivian (Dominik García-Lorido, Andy Garcia's real-life daughter) dances in a strip club to pay her college tuition, while his teenage son Vince Jr. (Ezra Miller) spends an inordinate amount of time searching online for BBWs (big, beautiful women). Filmmaker Raymond De Felitta's City Island is an occasionally amiable farce leavened with campy melodrama and over-the-top performances that ultimately adds up to little more than a contrived soap opera centering on yet another dysfunctional family. Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary with filmmaker Raymond De Felitta, and producer/star Andy Garcia, a “Dinner with the Rizzos” cast and crew featurette (16 min.), deleted scenes (16 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an uneven film.] (S. Granger)