Two Family House

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=80 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="04000500dvldtc.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>Reel Movie Critic.com</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reel Movie Critic.com"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id1905.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Taste of Others"><U>The Taste of Others</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1906.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Time and Tide"><U>Time and Tide</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1904.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tomcats"><U>Tomcats</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1902.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Too Much Sleep"><U>Too Much Sleep</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1898.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Time Code"><U>Time Code</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1900.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Time Regained"><U>Time Regained</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1901.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Turn It Up"><U>Turn It Up</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1897.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="U571"><U>U-571</U></A>   |   <B>Two Family House</B>   |   <A HREF="id1899.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="When Brenden Met Trudy"><U>When Brenden Met Trudy</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="041d2c00dvldtc.png"> <div> <B>Home Page for</B></div> <div> <B>      </B><A HREF="http://newbookdiscounts.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://newbookdiscounts.com/"><U><B>Books</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>           </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelforless/id364.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelfor"><U><B>Travel</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>                </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/"><U><B>Movies</B></U></A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>                   </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelforless/id361.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelfor"><U><B>Great Web Sites</B></U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="1341a46d0.png" border=0 width="164" height="109" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Current Movie Reviews</div> <div> Future Films</div> <div> Top 10 Box Office</div> <div> New Video Releases</div> <div> <B>Movie Web Sites</B></div> <div> <B><IMG SRC="13428e7f0.jpg" border=0 width="142" height="127" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Michael Rispoli, Raymond De Felitta & Katherine Narducci at the Chicago Film Festival</B></div> <div> <B>********************************</B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=400 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> Two Family House</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="475" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 146 WIDTH="469"><div> <IMG SRC="134d638c0.jpg" border=0 width="99" height="140" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/b00005b6kz/reelmoviecriticc">Two Family House DVD...used from $17.24...new at $21.49...</A>  </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="575"><div> Two Family House ***1/2 (PG)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="575"><div> Reviewed By George O. Singleton</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="549" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 ><NOBR><div> Your jailers may be those who are closest to you</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="580" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Buddy Visalo: Michael Rispoli</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Mary O'Neary; Kelly Macdonald</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Estelle Visalo: Katherine Narducci</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div> Jim O'Neary: Kevin Conway</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Director: Raymond De Felitta</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="304" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>30 Second Bottom Line</B>: A man who keeps trying to better his lot in life is held back by the good intentions of his wife and drinking buddies. By listening to his conscience and heart, he learns how to get his pot of gold.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Story Line:</B> Buddy (Michael Rispoli) is like many of us who are looking for a better life but have not yet found the vehicle to take us there. Making a living at something for which you have passion during those "8 hours a day" can be the search of a lifetime. Loosely based on a true story that begins in the late 1940's, Arthur Godfrey, a famous radio personality, heard Buddy sing and told him to come for an audition after he was released from the military.</div> <bR> <div> Buddy's wife Estelle (Katherine Narducci) discourages him from auditioning. Godfrey subsequently hired Julius La Rosa, who became famous, and from then on Buddy felt he missed his opportunity to do something other than a routine job for the rest of his life. He tries different business ventures such as pizza delivery, house painting and a limousine service, all of which fail miserably. Eventually he comes up with the idea to buy a two family house in which he and Estelle would live in the upstairs flat and turn the downstairs into a bar. Buddy would sing and Estelle would help him as a hostess and waitress. She reluctantly goes along with this and gets some unexpected help from the upstairs tenants who don't want to move out.</div> <bR> <div> Jim O'Neary (Kevin Conway) and Mary (Kelly Macdonald) are the married couple that lives upstairs in the house that could be described as "needing help." It's a borderline slum property and Jim is the type of guy to give it a bad reputation. Buddy is Italian, and while he and his friends drink a lot after work, they look down on the Irish like Jim, who indeed lives up to the drinking legends of that ethnic group. Jim is an undershirt-wearing slob who is drunk all the time and mean spirited to his very pregnant wife. </div> <bR> <div> The O'Neary's refuse to leave because of the pregnancy and a questionable old law on the books requires the landlord to provide 12 months notice before eviction. The Visalo's want them out ASAP so they can move upstairs and start working on the bar. When talking does not work, Buddy brings over his "Mafia looking" buddies to provide extra encouragement. Just as they are about to get physical, Mary goes into labor and has her child in the house. Everyone turns against her when they see that the child is apparently not Jim's, as the baby has deep brown skin making it clear that the father was African-American. A surprise of this type even today would not sit well, but back in the early 1950's she could not even live in the same neighborhood.</div> <bR> <div> Mary leaves soon after the birth of the child and moves into a hotel frequented by prostitutes. For reasons not quite clear to Buddy, he rents an apartment for her from a friend of his. Buddy and Mary slowly become friends as she encourages him to pursue his dreams, more so than Estelle. His friends view on life is summed up when one of them says "It's a beautiful day, let's go sit at the bar."</div> <bR> <div> Meanwhile, Estelle's plan is to spend enough money so the bank forecloses on their mortgage, and they will have to go back and live with her mother. </div> <bR> <div> Buddy's awakening comes when he finds that a stranger like Mary is supportive of his dreams to open a bar and become a night club singer, while his wife of over ten years would be happier if he worked at a sausage factory for the rest of his life.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Tell Me More About It</B>: I admire films that deal with situations of forbidden social behavior from which the characters move on, in some major way. <I>Two Family House</I> deals with life in general and ethnicity on two different levels. We see that the real heroes in life are not the politicians, sports and entertainment celebrities, but the everyday people who break down barriers of hate, fear and discrimination, one door at a time. The narrator of  the film, Mary's black child, tells us what's going on, yet there is no black actor in the film. The soon to be released <I>What's Cooking?</I> touches on interracial and inter ethnic relationships almost 50 years later. In comparing the two films, we learn that some things have changed for the better but we still have a ways to go.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="591" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> PG (sex; language)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> George O. Singleton © 2000</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> <A HREF="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com"><U><U>George@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Mini Filmography </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Michael Rispoli: The Soprano's- TV</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Kelly Macdonald: My Life So Far</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Katherine Narducci: The Soprano's-TV</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><div> Kevin Conway: Titanic</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Raymond De Felitta: Shadow of Doubt</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="286" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="585" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 65 WIDTH="579"><div>  <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=9jVMwncE8Ds&offerid=18484.10000001&subid=0&type=4"><IMG border=0 alt="Pfaelzer 120 x240" src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=9jVMwncE8Ds&bids=18484.10000001&subid=0&type=4"></a>  </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>