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Two Family House
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Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
DVD
July 22, 2003 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $34.99 | $12.80 |
Genre | Kids & Family |
Format | Color, Dolby, NTSC, Closed-captioned, Widescreen |
Contributor | Macdonald, Narducci, Con, Rispoli |
Language | English |
Runtime | 108 minutes |
Product Description
Product description
Two Family House [Import]
Amazon.com
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
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : R (Restricted)
- Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 4 Ounces
- Media Format : Color, Dolby, NTSC, Closed-captioned, Widescreen
- Run time : 108 minutes
- Release date : May 29, 2001
- Actors : Rispoli, Macdonald, Narducci, Con
- Language : English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
- Studio : Universal Studios Home Entertainment
- ASIN : B00005B6KZ
- Best Sellers Rank: #166,704 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #17,771 in Comedy (Movies & TV)
- Customer Reviews:
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Poor Buddy, a working stiff with a golden voice who has always come up just short enough in life, but always, always trying to reach the golden ring. His last attempt at making it is to buy an old house he wants to convert into a bar and finally be his own man. Estelle wants to keep living with her parents and fights Buddy all the way. Unfortunately, upstairs is an Irish couple, the husband a drunk and the wife pregnant.
Buddy has to fight his wife, Estelle who doesn’t want to own a bar, the drunk husband upstairs who doesn’t want to pay rent and abandons his young wife as soon as the baby is born, forced by Estelle to evict the mother and newborn...and it just gets worse from there. But Buddy has drawn a line in the sand. He will have his bar, he will be his own man, make his own way even if he has to work 2 jobs. His conscience also won’t allow him to be another force of evil in the abandoned wife’s life. Despite himself, he must reach out and help her as best he can. We learn later that everything works out for the best, lives were lived the way they were meant to be, beliefs were shattered, relationships torn asunder...and it will make you happy!
Set on Staten Island in 1956, "Two Family House" tells the story of Buddy Visalo (Michael Rispoli), an all-American dreamer with a string of failed business ventures and a disapproving nag of a wife (Katherine Narducci). Buddy buys the eponymous, severely dilapidated house with the plan of turning the first story into a tavern and the second into his home. However, Buddy must deal first with O'Neary (Kevin Conway), the drunken, abusive Irishman who is the second story's current tenant, and Mary (Kelly Macdonald), O'Neary's much younger, heavily pregnant wife. And that is really all I should tell you about the plot, to preserve the funny and touching surprises De Felitta has in store. I will tell you that the entire cast is excellent--especially Rispoli as a working-class guy who discovers his humanity even as his wife and friends think he's lost his mind, and Macdonald as a hard-luck young woman confused by Buddy's stumbling efforts to be kind.
Reminiscent of both "Marty" and "Moonstruck," but with a delicate magic all its own, "Two Family House" reminds us that people who seem to be violating community values may in fact be transcending them. It is a lovely film, one you will cherish and want to see many times.
I want to say that “Two Family House” is two stories but thinking back I’m not so sure. First, it is a gradual, gentle and unlikely love story, but it is also a story of a man finding his way after years of being manipulated and led by the nose by his friends, family and most importantly, by his wife. But it’s not truly two stories because it is the almost surprising discovery of love that allows him to see the reality of his situation with clarity for the first time, and gives him the courage to change it. Good production values and superb acting, especially by the three main actors. Recommended.
Joe