Set in a quaint fishing community on the outskirts of New York City, City Island is a hilarious and touching tale about a family whose comfortable co-existence is upended by surprising revelations of past secrets and present day lies. Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a lifelong resident of the tiny, tradition-steeped Bronx enclave of City Island. A family man who makes his living as a corrections officer, Vince longs to become an actor. Ashamed to admit his aspirations to his family, Vince would rather let his fiery wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies) believe his weekly poker games are a cover for an extramarital affair than admit he's secretly taking acting classes in Manhattan. When Vince is asked to reveal his biggest secret in class, he inadvertently sets off a chaotic chain of events that turns his mundane suburban life upside down. Inspired by the exercise, he decides to bring his long-lost ex-con son Tony (Steven Strait) home to meet the family, and it soon becomes clear that everyone—including his college student daughter (Dominik García-Lorido), teenaged son Vinnie, Jr. (Ezra Miller), charismatic acting partner (Emily Mortimer) and drama coach (Alan Arkin)— has something to hide. A perfect storm of deception, half truths and confusion makes Vince and his family members realize that the truth may not set them free, but it is easier to keep track of than all their well-intentioned white lies.This was a very funny movie. You find yourself completely enthralled with the numerous levels of disfunction in this family. There really is no rhyme or reason to anything that happens, but you are hooked in to the ride watching it all play out. This is a movie a lot like Little Miss Sunshine or Sunshine Cleaning. I really enjoyed it, cared about the characters and had a lot of huge laughs watching it.
I would definitely recommend people checking this out. Its one of the better limited release movies to come along in a while.
