Directed by Raymond De Felitta. Starring Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Steven Strait, Dominik Garcia-Lonzo, Emily Mortimer, Alan Arkin 12A cert, Lim release, 104 min
EARLY ON in this undemanding family drama, Andy Garcia’s frustrated prison officer receives advice from an acting teacher played by (blink and you’ll miss him) Alan Arkin. The veteran urges Andy to forget all those awful pauses. Ever since Brando emerged, actors cannot, he muses, say their own name without interjecting a lengthy ponder.
It's hard to know if the comment is intended as a self-regarding joke, but City Islandis, certainly, the type of film in which decent actors hum and haw while squabbling theatrically round the dinner table.
They have, to be fair, a great deal to argue about. Pater familias Garcia is taking those acting classes in secret because he’s afraid the family will ridicule him. His daughter, having dropped out of college, is working as a stripper. His sarcastic son is exercising a passion for larger ladies in the murkier corners of the internet.
Then, just to stir the pot further, the hassled hero invites an ex-con to sleep in the boathouse at the bottom of the garden. Only Garcia knows that the chap is his son from a previous, disastrous relationship.
The film sounds like superior soap opera, which is, indeed, how it plays out. Featuring coasting, third-gear performances from Garcia and, as his wife, Julianna Margulies, City Islandskirts some uncomfortable areas (Mrs Garcia nearly has an affair with her stepson) but always pulls back long before Solondz Avenue is attained. It closes with an absurdly neat tying up of ends, but does so with a deftness that defies the tolerant viewer to cry foul.
If for nothing else, the film is to be recommended for its exploration of a hitherto neglected corner of the Bronx. City Island exists and it looks rather nice.
