'City Island' brings to the table a family with a whole lot of secrets

"City Island" is the kind of engaging, character- driven comic romp that once was fodder for diluted TV sitcom spinoffs. There's the wacky family unit constantly at odds in their quirky background setting, all carrying peculiar secrets leading to overexcited misunderstandings that are settled with equal parts shouting and love.

Fortunately, a first-rate cast and distinctive script make it something much more endearing. In spite of an overly elaborate series of mix-ups that are revealed in a paroxysm of absurdity in the final scene, the movie has a genuine heart and a delicate earnestness that is as amusing as it is affectionate.

The biggest secret being kept in the Rizzo family is that Vince (Andy Garcia), who's approaching 20 years on the job as a prison guard, is pursuing his lifelong dream by taking an acting class on the down low. He covers his evening disappearances by telling his wife, Joyce (Julianna Margulies), that he's playing poker. She's convinced the excuse is an alibi for an affair, which gives her incentive to blow, especially at the family dinner table.

Add to that table a daughter (Dominik Garcia-Lorido, Andy Garcia's real daughter), who's hiding her expulsion from college and her day job as a stripper, and a precocious teenage son (Ezra Miller) obsessed with a particularly bizarre brand of Internet kink — and the recipe for riotous interaction is complete. Oh yeah, there's also an ex-con (Steven Strait), whom Vince invites into their home, and Vince's pretty friend Molly (Emily Mortimer), both of whom are cause for even more misconstrued friction.

A key component is that the Rizzos are Bronx-born and -bred, which adds to the exaggerated craziness of emotion. But it's not just any part of the Bronx; the location is City Island, a little-known fishing enclave whose picturesque charm as an ersatz New England port distinguishes the characters as outliers and is exploited to the story's great advantage.

Garcia and his deft comic touch are the best things about the movie (a glimpse of his appalling Brando imitation is choice). The rest of the ensemble cast makes the implausibilities appealing, even the outlandish finale where all secrets are revealed in a fit of melodrama, appropriately staged without any pretense of being a realistic resolution.

Ted Fry: tedfry@hotmail.com