Review: City Island (2009) TH

An imperfect family on a small NY island

This is a personal story about secrets: hiding them, sharing them. From the son who's interested in kinky stuff, the daughter with a racy job, to the father who sneaks off to no one in the family knows where. Everyone here has got one and it's high time they come out instead of ducking away.

On a small fishing island a corrections officer named Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) notices someone of familiarity called Tony (Steven Strait) that got transferred to the prison he works at. He knew the young man's mother and decides to take him into his home on good faith from a stipulation in his sentence called provisional parole. Tony absorbs the vociferous and argumentative family with reserve, as this is just another temporary place and nothing more. The daughter is in town visiting from school but plays referee, and the rebellious son is enrolled in high school but never attends. This is your typical dysfunctional family with outbursts and sarcasm to express themselves instead of "good mornings," "how are yous" and who could forget "have a nice day" except them.

"City Island" isn't really selling you something you might not have seen before and is a little coincidental at times, but gives a little bit of hope to those people who are in the same situation or are on the verge of getting there. This is a light drama with distinct characters that feel and breath the part. This comes with a few chuckles from some puns and in-jokes to other films. The Rizzos seem to have grown sick of each other but are still hanging in there to make it work because deep down inside they care but have a weird and aggressive way of showing it in loud New York fashion. There are some learning experiences, such as finding out that hiding from one another creates more space, instead of embracing each other for their own distinctions and imperfections. The characters managed to slightly grow from the outset and head towards the direction of a more comfortable life. Just because things didn't work out the way you originally envisioned, doesn't mean you have to give up or grow spiteful as you have your support group to fall back on: your family. Yep, those folks who aren't going away. Use what you got, or miss out.

Director: Raymond De Felitta (Two Family House, The Thing About My Folks)
Starring: Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Steven Strait, Emily Mortimer
Website: IMDB

Review: How Do You Know (2010) TH

Decisions: how does one know how to make them?

This is a gradually paced dramedy with a woman named Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) at a turning point in her early 30s when she got involved in what she's accustomed to being told is the ideal relationship: good looking partner, who's successful, has the same profession and who could forget is great in the sack. Yet something doesn't feel right, so she still has one foot in one foot out to keep her options open when another man unlike who she's ever been with calls her from an acquaintance for a chance date.

Lisa might get cut from the softball team, which turns her normally confident personality into a sentimental yuppie. The newly met guy is a former businessman named George (Paul Rudd) who's unemployed, soon out of money, girlfriend broke up with him and is being investigated with possible prison time in the future. He's normally a stand up guy that got the short end of the stick and is currently looking for a special gal to listen to him and get to know her as well. Currently everything is fun and new with her current boyfriend who has it all but Lisa is looking for someone who treats her as an individual, as her tentative partner--Matty (Owen Wilson) the playboy pro ball player--is giving a serious relationship a try but he has to break his own self-centered and narcissistic habits that are embedded into his suave and charming ways on the surface.

"How Do You Know" is an overly simplistic and minimalistic movie which is essentially summed up as people interact and "things" happen with a camera to film nearly every minute of it. The TV show "Seinfeld" brought about the premise of "doing nothing" and somehow made it work, though here there's not a bundle of significant events or rewards occurring during the process till the end, which felt like three hours to get there and obvious from the get-go. This is basically a series of free-floating events that happen in a short amount of time and are filmed tediously to give realistic room for growth, though it comes across like it lacks a central direction as it's to the point of being so loose that it's aimless at times. A thinking person's movie? Hardly, as it's stretched thin enough.

Jack Nicholson plays George's (Paul Rudd) manipulative dad with his usual sarcastic self who says exactly what's on his mind. Kathryn Hahn does a charismatic role as Annie: the caring secretary who's full blown pregnant and an emotional volcano ready to erupt. There are funny jokes to lighten the load but some seem out of context as there isn't a grounded focus to place them in. It becomes one giant exercise in indecision between the characters to the point where you want to yell out "just do something already!" This isn't going to be rewarding like "Terms of Endearment," "As Good as It Gets" or even "Spanglish" from James L. Brooks, as those had actual things happening over of a period of reasonable time, with memorable characters doing them and also space to ponder upon in between. "How Do You Know" already by the halfway mark makes you want to check your watch and go back to your own life already.

Director: James L. Brooks (Broadcast News, I'll Do Anything, The Simpsons writer/producer)
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson
Website: IMDB

Review: The Dilemma (2011) TH

To look the other way, or speak up

This is a dramedy about a man with a burden weighing down on his shoulders from what he feels is an obligation to a tight knit friend and business partner. If you seen something not directly affecting you but that would cause grief to a buddy, would you look the other way or make it your own business? That's what "The Dilemma" is about: being caught in a Catch 22 with consideration for both sides of the argument as no one might come out the winner, both the offender and the offended, not to mention you as the messenger.

Ronny Valentine (Vince Vaughn) and Nick Brannen (Kevin James) have a complimenting partnership: the smooth talker and the technical guy. They both are looking for an automotive company to use their engine prototype. Except, things aren't yet figured out with the final details on their end and there's a deadline to prove themselves, otherwise it's make it or break it. If it wasn't enough with stress and potential failure on the line, one of their significant others is cheating on them and one of the friends accidentally saw it. The witness can't seem to find the right time to tell the other and things start to pile up and take a toll on their own relationship with their significant other.

"The Dilemma" has a little fun and awkward humor to take out the sting of serious subjects. It has a few layers to scratch, though nothing that would leave a permanent impression like "Unfaithful" also about partners sneaking off. It shifts between easy entertainment of the exaggerated type and weighty issues of the real kind, which gives it some high points and others that fizzle down as the tone becomes more personal and conscientious. Sometimes it doesn't know what it wants to be and doesn't contain the smoothest balance of drama and comedy, but the structure at least attempts to build itself up with piling dilemmas that can play into either or. Jennifer Connelly and Winona Ryder do their parts as best they can but feel like chess pieces in the script for the main players. Kevin James feels underused and keeps it more serious by playing a guy with a skill-set and anxiety from the pressures of the job. Vaughn is where the humor portion comes in but if you seen his other pictures over the last decade you can count on him to play the same consistent persona: the persuasive word fumbler who spews enough hyperbole to start his own religion.

Director: Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code)
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Winona Ryder, Jennifer Connelly
Website: IMDB