TWO FAMILY HOUSE (Lions Gate) Starring: Michael Rispoli, Kelly Macdonald, Katherine Narducci, Kevin Conway, Matt Servitto. Screenplay: Raymond DeFelitta. Producers: Anne Harrison and Alan Klingenstein. Director: Raymond DeFelitta. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, adult themes, violence) Running Time: 104 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Sentimentalized stories of the 1950s have become so commonplace in film that it's incredibly refreshing to find one that doesn't whitewash the darker side of the happy days. Raymond DeFelitta's TWO FAMILY HOUSE is in some ways a familiar feel-good story, but it gives its good feeling an unexpected edge. The story's protagonist is Buddy Visalo (Michael Rispoli), a World War II veteran living in a predominantly Italian Staten Island neighborhood in 1956. Buddy once had dreams of being a singer, but those dreams were overwhelmed by his wife Estelle's (Katherine Narducci) desire for a normal life. While Buddy works in a local factory, he still strives for something more, and jumps at the chance to purchase a run-down two story house that he and Estelle can occupy upstairs while turning the downstairs into a tavern. Unfortunately, the upstairs is already occupied by Jim O'Neary (Kevin Conway) and his pregnant wife Mary (Kelly Macdonald), who are in no hurry to leave and have an obscure tenancy law on their side.
For a while, TWO FAMILY HOUSE looks like it might turn into a broad comedy, with the Italians and Irish clashing loudly and perhaps farcically. Then, on the day Buddy is prepared to throw the O'Nearys out, Mary gives birth to an unexpectedly -- ahem -- dark-hued child, and Jim abandons her. The somewhat guilty Buddy puts Mary and her child up in a nearby apartment, and the two begin spending time together while Estelle continues to scoff at Buddy's attempts at entrepreneurship. In fact, she's scoffing at even more than that, as are Buddy's friends in a slightly different way. What is ridiculous to them is the idea of anyone moving too far beyond the proscribed ethnic, cultural and even geographic boundaries. Buddy's willingness to extend a hand to Mary, just like his desire to pursue a career dream, suggests that the boundaries are a bit blurry. And the idea of blurry boundaries makes everyone around Buddy more than slightly uncomfortable.
Even without its subtext, TWO FAMILY HOUSE is a funny, well-acted and tremendously appealing drama -- so appealing that it might even be perceived as fantastically generous to its protagonist. Rispoli delivers a nicely nuanced performance as Buddy, a teddy bear of a guy trying to move forward rather than look back in bitterness at missed opportunities or failures. DeFelitta's brand of nostalgia includes the recognition that most of his characters are racists; they toss around slurs with the casual understanding that in their homogenous world, there's "us" and "them." It would be easy to interpret Buddy's open-mindedness as anachronism, but DeFelitta doesn't make him the good guy just because he helps the girl with the black baby, nor are Estelle and Buddy's friends obvious villains just because they use the "n-word." TWO FAMILY HOUSE builds its characters by building a complete understanding of the world around them.
DeFelitta does go a bit overboard in his use of voice-over narration (told by Mary's son from a distance of forty years), and the film does drag as it moves past the 90 minute mark. It occupies that treacherous middle ground between comedy and drama where a film can either feel too frivolous or not frivolous enough. Fortunately, DeFelitta understands how to make his film about more than its obvious premise without resorting to overly-weighty symbolism. Culture clashes tend to be represented on screen either in strident sociology lectures or fish-out-of-water yuk-fests. TWO FAMILY HOUSE explores melting pot growing pains in the context of a simple story about a simple man. It's an achievement that's not nearly as simple as it looks.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 houses divided: 8.
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