城市岛屿

小品类的喜剧片似乎都爱用这种风格的封面海报，一张标明了性格的全家福。
男主在许多电影中当过黑老大，大背头很有西西里的味道。他和Alpacino有点像，感觉随时能从平静跳跃到狂暴，前一秒还无比细腻的抚摸着一件雕塑品，后一秒就啪啪啪……。
不过这部电影中，他完全是另外一回事，一个内向烦躁又有点压抑的中年人。
男主的家里充满了无伤大雅的秘密。每个人都偷偷的在另一种生活中充实自己，出于对他人目光和态度的恐惧，他们在餐桌上勉强的维系着他们自认为该有的形象。
于是就一点会有误会，然后就有了喜剧。
影片并没有着重于冲突，这也是这类小品电影的特点，不会让人看着纠结。
除了最后剪乱麻的大结局外，电影主要精力都在男主如何对梦想羞羞答答扭扭捏捏躲躲藏藏的追求上，事实上我觉得可以更偷偷摸摸蹑手蹑脚一点。
这种电影只要有几个压的住的演员，即使不出色也不大会是烂片。因为没什么野心，生活嘛很容易就能让人感同身受的。谁没秘密呢。

纽约附近城岛的监狱看守文斯（安迪·加西亚 Andy Garcia 饰）瞒着老婆乔伊斯（朱丽安娜· 玛格丽丝 Julianna Margulies 饰）到城里上表演课，梦想成为一名演员。乔伊斯瞒着文斯抽烟，女儿和儿子也都有自己的大小秘密，一家人各自为政。有一天文斯发现新转来的犯人汤尼（史蒂文·斯崔特 Steven Strait 饰）竟是自己遗弃二十多年的儿子。文斯把汤尼带回了家，向所有人隐瞒了事实，希望能利用假释好好照顾这个儿子，让他重返正途。与此同时，在表演课同学莫莉（艾米莉·莫迪默 Emily Mortimer 饰）的鼓励下，文斯参加了一次重要的电影角色面试，没想到这却引起了乔伊斯的误会，造成了家庭危机大爆发……
本片获纽约曼哈顿特里贝卡（Tribeca）电影节观众票选奖。©豆瓣

纽约附近城岛的监狱看守文斯（安迪·加西亚 Andy Garcia 饰）瞒着老婆乔伊斯（朱丽安娜· 玛格丽丝 Julianna Margulies 饰）到城里上表演课，梦想成为一名演员。乔伊斯瞒着文斯抽烟，女儿和儿子也都有自己的大小秘密，一家人各自为政。有一天文斯发现新转来的犯人汤尼（史蒂文·斯崔特 Steven Strait 饰）竟是自己遗弃二十多年的儿子。文斯把汤尼带回了家，向所有人隐瞒了事实，希望能利用假释好好照顾这个儿子，让他重返正途。与此同时，在表演课同学莫莉（艾米莉·莫迪默 Emily Mortimer 饰）的鼓励下，文斯参加了一次重要的电影角色面试，没想到这却引起了乔伊斯的误会，造成了家庭危机大爆发……

看电影其实很主观，大家各取所需，心里想的是什么，就能从中读出什么。

一、墨菲定律：你看到的未必真实

任何事物，都没有你看到的那么简单，反之，许多事物看似复杂，但若不是冷眼的旁观者，那就一定会有误解和质疑。争吵者会觉得对方无理取闹，但是旁观者却能理智清晰地理出前因后果的逻辑。片头文森将失散多年的儿子从监狱带回，餐桌上家人间的吵闹成为了影片的第一个高潮，从兄妹之间的争吵到父母，再回到兄妹，吵闹间每个人的每句台词既能概括出各自的性格，又彼此相连，串成一种浅显易懂的逻辑，由此可见导演对台词的把控能力。导演是在告诉我们，其实争吵的对方并非不可理喻，只是我们都太执着于自己的想法，忽略了对方的感受。

二、谎言可怕：家庭谎言的教科书

你还可以把这部片子理解成家庭谎言形成的教科书，为了掩饰自卑的谎言，为了隐藏秘密的谎言，为了维护他人的谎言，为了爱而生的谎言……谎言太容易生成，但是对于家庭来说，谎言的产生远远要比家庭之外的那些来得纯洁，因为彼此都因有爱，于是繁衍出的也是良性因子，只需放下自我，便能有好的结果。影片的结尾，文森放下了对自我的否定，妻子放下了表面的强悍，女儿放下了假装的优秀，在眼泪和爱的催化下，原本因为伪装脆弱面而建立起的谎言体系终于崩塌，一堆人在舒缓的钢琴声中相拥在一起。

总的来说，片子属于带有一点黑色幽默的喜剧，导演对台词和节奏的把握相当有范儿，几条线索的发展与交织有些科恩兄弟的风格，整部片子可圈可点，还是非常适合大家在炎热的夏季，一边吃西瓜一边观看的。

Lucky day: I picked up a movie which has been lying in my computer hard drive for almost two years—the City Island, a story which is about the key words that I came up with: lie, secret, truth and finally, relief.

Like Chinese, some words are really paradoxically synonymous with each other. Everyone would LIE to keep their SECRETS which are most often TRUTHS; when they are told, it is a big RELIEF.

Vince: a correctional officer i.e. a prison guard by our knowledge, who has most deep and personal secrets:
1. He pretended to quit smoking, already.
2. He found his out-law son (Tony) in prison and brought him home for his release.
3. His biggest secret is that he had been dreaming to be an actor so he took an acting class for a long time while had been telling lies to his wife he had been playing poker games—he thought his wife would think his secret dream is stupid, absurd…a huge shame.

Joyce: his wife. She also had secrets. She kept smoking (probably pot), too. She pretended to believe her husband had been heading for poker games while she did believe he had an affair.

Shelley: his daughter. A future college graduate in her parents’ eyes while she was a stripper to earn his tuition for next semester—she lost the scholarship because she had been caught for pot-smoking.

Tony: the unexpected result from a psyche hooker mother and young Vince, had an urge on Joyce and found Shelley was a stripper but he neither did the thing with Joyce nor got a hand on Shelley—he even tried pull Shelley out of from the strip club while she was in thin dress.

…

When all these things add up, the full picture can make up to fulfill the so-called movie category: comedy.

Yet, it is not that hilarious, actually. Real wise comes from laughter, maybe. It brings me two “in” sayings—something like that.
1.Don’t judge so quickly.
2.Not everything is as it seems. —my most remembered lines from Prison Break. While the Chinese version might be a little real hilarious: 事情不是你想的那样。

Sadly, everyone, almost, has to tell lies in real life because we all have secrets: something we have to hide, we want it to pass, we do not want to hurt someone else, we do not want to share to expose our weakness… we do not want to look like a loser. At least, I do.

However, things might be a lot easier by simply doing the simple thing: tell him/her:
I have an illegitimate son.
I still smoke.
I want to be an actor.
I dance in a strip class to make money.
…
Whether these “covert truths” are sweet or not, telling them gives you a big relief.

Don’t hide things too deep if they make our life already a mess.

这类电影是我的最爱，类似的有阳光小美女、美国丽人、孩子们都还好等等，文斯的挠脸的动作以及长相颇似德尼罗呢。
一般美国城市普通家庭的矛盾冲突，最终启发影片中人物和看电影的观众，圆满结束，观者心情愉悦。把哪怕最糟糕的实情说出来才是影片鼓励的行为，人们总是自以为聪明，不愿意把自认为糟糕的事情与家人分享，害怕伤害他们，无论你看多少类似的电影或者都明白这类道理，但轮到自己的时候还是忍不住说谎，不信你想想是不是这样的？