City Island

It's always a pleasure to see great actors doing their stuff, even if the vehicle leaves something to be desired. Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies put their heart and soul into this project, with pretty convincing Bronx accents and characters. Those of you who find the constant screaming unrealistic - you don't know too many families from the boroughs. The plot was funny and moving, although you could see most of the punchlines and dramatic moments coming from a mile away. What really bugged me was the degeneration of the movie into the most obvious, predictable, sappy shtick during the last 20 minutes. That part was apparently written as a play rather than a film. It was calculated to evoke a strong audience reaction, and it worked, judging from the people around me in the theater. It would have been more appropriate for a crowd-pleasing scene in a Broadway comedy. OK for that kind of thing, but it was a jarring jolt from interesting to tedious for me.