Excellent dysfunctional family dramedy. The kind of plot-line and stories have been done before, but that doesn't take away from quality of the writing, characters and acting work done here.
I actually think the younger son played by Ezra Miller was the best part or at least the funniest character in this movie. I remembered after scanning his credits, he was 1 of the re-occurring characters last season on Royal Pains. Andrew McCarthy played his asshole/richsnob dad. He was a lot funnier in this, honestly. Maybe he's a bit of an untapped talent?.
Andy Garcia, Emily Mortimer (whose back-story I didn't entirely follow. Being from NYC and her kids; and also whether she really did have romantic intentions for Garcia's character or not). Marguiles and Garcia's "secret" of a son.
There wasn't really a slow or dull moment in this movie. Why it's received such little buzz or promotion seems to be pretty surprising. Maybe it didn't screen well? Perhaps the NY/NJ part of it? The title "City Island" which frankly, doesn't really seem too fitting for what it's about. The title easily could have had the word "secret" or something instead.
No matter, hopefully it'll find an audience when it hits the box office in early April, as for the early movies of 2010, I can't claim to have seen anything better yet.
80/100