Raymond De Felitta's Sundance 2000 Audience Winner is a sweet little romantic drama set in the insular Italian and Irish neighborhoods of 1956 Staten Island. Narrated with the conversational ease of a bar story, it stars Michael Rispoli as Buddy, blue-collar Italian American with big dreams, a golden voice, and a history of failed business schemes. His latest scheme involves turning a two-story firetrap into a bar with an upstairs apartment, but first he has to evict the squatters he inherited with the house: an abandoned young Irish mother (Kelly Macdonald) and her half-black child. Guilty over his hardhearted decision, he sets them up in an apartment and essentially adopts them. An unlikely friendship begins in clashes and verbal fireworks and turns into a gentle romance while Buddy confronts his own prejudice and smothering cultural values.
De Felitta is uncharacteristically generous to both his clannish working-class chorus and Buddy's wife Estelle (Kathrine Narducci, from The Sopranos), who undermines her spouse's efforts and ridicules his ambition out of sheer conformism. Rispoli, by contrast, is accepting and warm as a guy hungry for his piece of the American dream, and Macdonald's scrappy single mom is full of Irish dander that melts into a romantic sparkle and loving support. Two Family House is inspired by the true story of writer-director De Felitta's uncle, and there's an engaging modesty and loving understanding in this portrait of one man's rebellion against the stifling values and judgmental intolerance of his community. --Sean Axmaker
(15 votes)
2.
Set in the urban backwater of Staten Island in the 1950s, TWO FAMILY HOUSE tells the story of Buddy Visalo (Michael Rispoli), who dreams of singing stardom but is forced to face the struggles of an ordinary life. After his one shot at making the big time is nixed by his fiancée, Estelle (Katherine Narducci), he tries to settle into married life, but he never manages to subdue his overarching ambition to be a star. Buddy launches a string of failed ventures before eventually pinning his hopes on a run-down house, where he plans to open a bar and be the star attraction. But between his wife's control-freak urges and his tenants' refusal to vacate the house, nothing goes as planned. However, in his campaign to evict the couple that rents from him--a pregnant young Irish beauty (Kelly Macdonald) and her abusive, drunk husband (Kevin Conway)--he finds the one sympathetic soul in his life. And again he is forced to choose between his sense of duty and his heart.
Writer and director Raymond De Felitta (CAFÉ SOCIETY) approaches the story of TWO FAMILY HOUSE with humor and affection, wihout shying away from the uglier realities of working-class life. While the well-trodden film terrain of New York's Italian-American communities is a tough place to shine, both the director and the outstanding ensemble cast keep the broad strokes to a minimum, which is what propels this story beyond the confines of its small world.
(15 votes)
3.
"One of the best. A marvel!" - Newsday
Buddy Visalo (Michael Rispoli) is a guy with a dream as big as his heart. Defying everything and everyone, including his wife (Katherine Narducci), Buddy decides to follow his dream. When he meets a woman who truly believes in him (Kelly Macdonald), he must choose between the only life he's ever known and his desire for happiness. A tender, romantic comed in which two people discover that happily ever afer can come from the most unlikely place. "This rich romantic comedy, with its messages of love and tolerance and hope and its great old tunes, won the Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival and seems destined to capture many more fans..." (The New York Times)
(15 votes)
4.
Buddy Visalo is a factory worker, a frustrated crooner who once had a shot at the big time. Buddy's dreams of greatness have been reduced to an endless series of failed moneymaking schemes. His latest is buying a two-family house for him and his wife, Estelle and converting the ground floor into a neighborhood bar where he can perform. The wrench in the works is that he also inherits the upstairs tenants--Mary, a pregnant Irish girl fresh off the boat, and her abusive, alcoholic husband, Jim. As Buddy's gang of Italians tries to handle the situation, the girl goes into labor, and a baby is born, forcing them all to confront the limits of their tolerance and compassion.
(15 votes)
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