City Island

Now that Belly Dancing classes have finished for the year, Tuesday nights are free for going to the movies. Last week we went to see City Island which is a charmingly feel-good story about the perils of lying to your nearest and dearest.

The family whose lives the movie revolves around are the Rizzos. They live on City Island, which is a very pretty small island that's part of New York, one square kilometer in size, connected to the Bronx by a bridge. The novelty location adds an extra level of charm to the film.

Vince Rizzo (Dad) is a corrections officer and he's a secret smoker and a closet actor. He has a son from a previous relationship about whom his wife (Joyce) doesn't know . Joyce is also a secret smoker but apart from that is relatively uncomplicated. Their college-age daughter (Vivian) is also a secret smoker and although her parents think she's studying, she's actually working as a stripper. Their high-school-student son Vince Jr is (yes, you guessed it) a secret smoker and he also has a thing for fat girls.

Vince's long-lost son (Tony) turns up in Vince's jail and on release he comes to live at the Rizzo's. Naturally Vince doesn't let on who Tony really is and of course his identity is revealed eventually.As the movie progresses all the cats are let out of all the bags, and very amusing it is too - laugh-out-loud funny, in fact. Add the great location and generally beautiful and talented actors (Steven Strait as Tony wins my eye-candy of the year prize, I think) and a great script and you have the recipe for a very enjoyable film. There are quite a few plot-holes and it's not to be taken too seriously but it is genuine good fun.

Anne's rating 4/5 Ian's rating 3/5