Island Escape

Time for another random Netflix recommendation of a movie I've never heard of before. This time the film was called City Island, a low budget film made just last year, starring Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, and Steven Strait, with secondary roles played by Alan Arkin and Emily Mortimer.

I went into it with absolutely no knowledge of the plot. But for the less adventurous, here it is in a nutshell. The setting is a tiny island near the Bronx. It's a family comedy (with a touch of drama) about a prison guard who finds out that a son he abandoned before his birth is in his facility. The young man has made parole, but without any family to accept responsibility for his release, he'll have to stay behind bars for the remainder of his term. The father decides to take responsibility himself, bringing him home to his own family, but without telling anyone who the young man really is. Hilarity ensues.

This isn't a raucous, laugh-out-loud kind of comedy. It's a "soft touch" story that's pleasant to watch, and makes you smile with some comedic misunderstandings along the way. Classic "if only everyone would just talk to everyone else, none of this would have happened" material. It isn't knocked off from any one given source, I'd say, but you've probably seen movies like this many times before.

It is probably worth a viewing, though, thanks to a charming cast. The performances won't amaze you, but they all feel authentic and honest. In movies like this, where the situations aren't always believable, the characters have to be for it all to work. Here, they are, and so it does.

I give City Island a B-. If you're looking for a light movie night, it might be one for you to consider.