Release: May 27
Running time: 100 minutes
Rating: M (mature themes and coarse language)

If you'd told me before seeing City Island that it was a family drama about secrets, I would have grabbed your head, marched you to the nearest bathroom and given you a swirly.

Set on City Island, a small, picturesque fishing community in the Bronx, it tells the story of Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia), a prison correctional officer with secrets. Vince is married to Joyce (Julianna Margulies) and is father to secretive chubby chaser Vinnie (Erza Miller) and guarded stripper Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido).

Vince's first secret is that he's taking acting lessons behind his wife's back. Vince's second secret has something to do with the mysterious stranger (Stephen Strait) he brings to stay with the family who may or may not be the son he abandoned years ago.

Vince's confidant from acting class, the mysterious Molly (Emily Mortimer) is also full of secrets.

Vince, like many men, is completely repressed. Acting is his only release from the straings of heading a mouthy family and his chosen career (one doesn't become a correctional officer to live the stress free life.) Vince is so secretive about his acting that he doesn't even let the family know he's interested in movies. Hidden around the house are dozens of taped cassettes and biographies of his hero Marlon Brando. Such is his dedication to Marlon that when given an audition, Vince does a Brando impersonation.

So why did I enjoy it so much? What makes this film so successful where so many other films about family secrets have failed?

It's a simple lesson that Australian screenwriters need to learn – what makes this drama so successful its use of humour to contrast the light with the dark, and to get to the truth of the characters. For a drama, this film is hilarious. It had more laughs than all the comedies I've seen this year put together (granted, not difficult) . Using humour enables even the darkest moments to become palatble for the audience, and helps us relate to the characters.

The comic tone is perfect – touching, but never overbearing. It lightens without turning the excerise into a yuckfest. The story – as dryly pointed out by one of the characters – is Greek in scope, yet has an climax that is more The Brady Bunch than A View From The Bridge. Writer/director Raymond De Felitta has achieved a balancing act equal to walking a tightrope between two skyscrapers on a blustery day.

Next time you come across an Australian writer/director sitting in a cafe whining that nobody saw his bleak existentialist drama about a woman returning to the secretive country town she grew up in (and you will), march him to the nearest bathroom and give him a swirly for me. Then force him to watch City Island.

VERDICT: Distinction.