Two Family House

Rating:
Summary: Two Family House an outstanding place to visit
Review: A great movie with many outstanding performances by relatively, really relatively, unknowns. Heartwarming, humorous, nostalgic, totally elevating and causing much reflection on how humans treat one another today, in the past and with hope for the future. Very hard to forget this movie, its characters and its lessons. Hope not to.

Rating:
Summary: 2 Family House.
Review: A married Italian man falls in love with an Irish woman whose husband left because she gave birth to a black baby! All of this occurs in 1950's Staten Island.

You'll recognize many of the cast members from the Sopranos, but this is no mafia story.

Michael Rispoli is excellent in his search for happiness amid a variety of social issues faced. Marital, familial, ethnic and racial relations are all explored, and the result is a warm, funny and entertaining movie.

Rating:
Summary: Love At Any Cost
Review: Against the backdrop of Staten Island in the 50s, Michael Rispoli's character "Buddy" finds living out his dream an encouraging word away. His wife "Estelle", portrayed by Katherine Narducci, refuses to see any good in anything Buddy dreams. Her constant criticism weighs heavily on his ambition, not to mention his wonder on whether she has ever loved him. Enter an abandoned Irish mother of a newborn fathered by a Black. Compelled by her plight, Buddy offers a compassionate ear and soon the beleaguered pair find love and new resolve. He leaves his wife and takes up with her much to the shock and dismay of his fellow Italian friends and family. Despite the odds, he embarks on the road to his latest dream with his new love. Whether or not his latest dream is successful is of little consequence; someone in his life believes in him.

Rating:
Summary: Love At Any Cost
Review: Against the backdrop of Staten Island in the 50s, Michael Rispoli's character "Buddy" finds living out his dream an encouraging word away. His wife "Estelle", portrayed by Katherine Narducci, refuses to see any good in anything Buddy dreams. Her constant criticism weighs heavily on his ambition, not to mention his wonder on whether she has ever loved him. Enter an abandoned Irish mother of a newborn fathered by a Black. Compelled by her plight, Buddy offers a compassionate ear and soon the beleaguered pair find love and new resolve. He leaves his wife and takes up with her much to the shock and dismay of his fellow Italian friends and family. Despite the odds, he embarks on the road to his latest dream with his new love. Whether or not his latest dream is successful is of little consequence; someone in his life believes in him.

Rating:
Summary: Finally
Review: I never write reviews, but this movie would be proudly my exception. It's just definitely one of the most human pictures and the kind of performances I've rarely seen since East of Eden. "It's an irrefutable fact that there's at least one moment of total selflessness in a man's life." -Two Family House

Rating:
Summary: Finally
Review: I never write reviews, but this movie would be proudly my exception. It's just definitely one of the most human pictures and the kind of performances I've rarely seen since East of Eden. "It's an irrefutable fact that there's at least one moment of total selflessness in a man's life." -Two Family House

Rating:
Summary: warm and wise
Review: This is essentially a character study of a decent guy, Buddy Visalo, who realizes 11 years into his marriage to Estelle that his family and friends are his jailers, stopping him from realizing his dreams of running a tavern. Estelle crushed his dream of auditioning for Arthur Godfrey's TV show, now she would have him stay at a mind numbing factory job for the sake of conformity. He buys a two-family house (against Estelle's objections), and when he meets his upstairs tenants, an Irish-American boozehound and his pregnant wife, his life starts to change. There is a happy ending, there is virtually no profanity (hurray!), and the setting of time and place, 1956 in Staten Island, NY, is realistic. Many of the actors are from The Sopranos, and this enhances the sense of familiarity one feels instantly with this group of Italian-Americans leading ordinary lives. There are no big speeches, no grandstanding displays of emotions, just the quiet depiction of a man re-gaining his own sense of self worth after years after putting his dreams on hold. Buddy is a decent guy, and you cheer him on his journey.

Rating:
Summary: Marty Redux
Review: This is one of the sweetest, most intelligent, authentic films of the decade: perfectly acted, beautifully directed. It's one of the first films I've seen in a long time that gives the story time to breathe. It's a pleasure to see the Sopranos cast giving this simple story their best attention. In a better world TWO FAMILY HOUSE would have gotten the Oscar. It's like MARTY but with more grit, and deserves a wide audience.

Rating:
Summary: two family house
Review: This was simply the most appealing movie we've seen in years. It was touching, funny, moving and romantic. Unlike most romantic comedies it entertains men and women equally.The music alone makes it worthwhile. A must see for anyone from 18-80!

Rating:
Summary: Smart and Sweet
Review: What an absolutely lovely film this was. And what a shame it never enjoyed wider release, for it is eminently worth viewing. I was even more delighted when I found out that it really was based on a true story...the director/writer is Buddy's nephew.

Buddy Visalo is a lovable, warm, and bumbling dreamer whose wife Estelle constantly deflates his trial balloons--because she is expected to by her culture and the times they lived in. She wants Buddy to take no chances and would rather he kept a job he hated than try something new and more daring.

To realize his dream, Buddy must ignore Estelle and also evict the pregnant Mary O'Neary from the upstairs of the place where he hopes to start his bar. This eviction pains him greatly. How he assuages his pain and helps her out is the heart and soul of "Two-Family House".

This is a movie about doing good for someone and expecting nothing in return, about trying to fulfill a dream and dealing with the obstacles that are in your way. It is not a complex movie with a hidden agenda and messages tangled up in a lot of gimmickry. There are serious themes treated seriously, but never in a preachy way. It is just uplifting and full of truths with a hero who is Everyman. As one reviewer said ...."Buddy is off on an adventure that surprises even him. To accompany him is to experience filmgoing joy."