# Two Family House (2000)

### reviewed by
Jon Popick

    PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com
    "We Put the SIN in Cinema"

This Audience Award winner from the 2000 Sundance Film Festival is a touching story of an everyday Joe trying to live out the American Dream in the 1950s. Two Family House is funny and, at times, heart-breaking in its painfully accurate portrayal of one man's ambitious dreams nearly crushing the life out of him.

The house in the film's title refers to 19 West Street in Staten Island. It's a ratty, dilapidated domicile with an upstairs rental unit in a well-kept Irish section of Staten Island, but the house's condition doesn't scare off machine operator Buddy Visalo (Michael Rispoli, Jackie Aprile from The Sopranos). Buddy looks past the rotting floorboards and broken windows to see what the shack could be – a popular neighborhood bar.

Like any Ralph Kramden-style dreamer from the ‘50s, Buddy's plans have more than a couple of major obstacles to overcome. The first and most obvious is the filthy drunk Irish tenant (Kevin Conway ) and his young, pregnant wife (Kelly MacDonald, My Life So Far) who live upstairs. The occupants won't pay rent and refuse to leave and, thanks to a bizarre loophole in an obscure local law, they don't have to.

And like Kramden, Buddy also has a loudmouth wife who takes great pride in rubbing her husband's nose in all of his failures, which admittedly are numerous and quite hysterical. Buddy has always resented Estelle (Kathrine Narducci, The Sopranos) for forcing him to abandon his big chance at a singing career several years earlier. Now he just grits his teeth when his better half announces that Buddy is `pregnant with failure.'

Working double-shifts at the factory, Buddy sinks all of his money and time into the bar, and his wife's incessant nagging leads him into the arms of Mary, the pregnant girl upstairs. Mary's life makes Buddy seem like Nelson Rockefeller. She's flat broke and her husband takes off when she gives birth to a very non-Irish looking son. Like in any film, Buddy and Mary can't stand each other at first, but the two grow closer and closer as House progresses.

Buddy reminded me of Kevin James from King of Queens – another goodhearted, loveable oaf from one of New York's boroughs. The character is the embodiment of the American Dream, whether you're talking about the ‘50s or present day. I mean, who doesn't want to start their own business and trade their wife in for a hot little Irish number? Of course, back then, it was a much bigger deal, and that's part of House's reflective charm.

House was written and directed by Raymond DeFelitta (Shadow of a Doubt), who gives the film the nostalgic feel of an American fable. Plus he hit the Sopranos casting trifecta with Rispoli, Narducci and Vinnie `Big Pussy' Pastore. DeFelitta also chooses a unique character to provide House's narration, which supply the film's ending with a pretty stirring scene.

1:44 - R for adult language and mild sexual content

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