Two Family House

2000 "The only way to find out what you love is to risk everything you have."
Two Family House
7.2| 1h44m| en| More Info
Released: 21 January 2000 Released
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.twofamilyhouse.com/
Synopsis

Buddy Visalo (Michael Rispoli) is a factory worker, a frustrated crooner who once had a shot at the big time. Buddy's dreams of greatness have been reduced to an endless series of failed moneymaking schemes. His latest is buying a two-family house for him and his wife, Estelle (Katherine Narducci) and converting the ground floor into a neighborhood bar where he can perform. The wrench in the works is that he also inherits the upstairs tenants, Mary,a pregnant Irish girl fresh off the boat (Kelly Macdonald) and her abusive, alcoholic husband, Jim (Kevin Conway). As Buddy's gang of Italians tries to handle the situation, the girl goes into labor, and a baby is born, forcing them all to confront the limits of their tolerance and compassion.

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dwacon-2 I found this film by accident while programming my TIVO. The official description of the film didn't really relate with the story was all about.This is fine however, as we don't want to spoil the wonderfully conceived character-based plot. The growth of the characters, and the realizations that they make in the third act, is stellar.Overall, this film is a wonderful character piece that gives a glimpse of racial attitudes in the 1950's in New York (that don't seem so different from the attitudes in the 2000's).The acting was superb and the pace of the plot was crisp. I highly recommend adding this to your TIVO play list.As closing credits rolled, I thought that this is what an award-winning screenplay feels like -- and sadly that doesn't always translate into commercial success.
gbheron Buddy's repressed. A young Italian-American man living in Staten Island in 1956, he sees opportunity all around him. It's laying there waiting for him to pick it up and run with. Except for one major obstacle, his wife Estelle. She wants only for Buddy to find his narrow niche in the local community, with its dead-end job and familiar surroundings, and exist quietly in her idea of the American dream. But it's not Buddy's vision. So Buddy perseveres, undercut at every turn by Estelle. He finally manages to buy a two-family house to turn into his dream; a bar on the first floor, his home on the second. The current occupants are a foul-mouthed white trash Irish immigrant family, the very young wife in a very pregnant way. When she gives birth to a child whose father is obviously black, the older husband abandons her. And from this point Buddy's life journey takes a remarkable turn.Two Family House is a prototypical Indie film in all its positive aspects. It does very well with little budget, maximizing the contributions of cast and crew. The uplifting story is told without pandering or exploitation. The movie's not great, but it is effective, and most importantly, very enjoyable.
b22bandit Late afternoon on a monday, flipping through my 8 chanels of HBO, I found this little number and feel all the richer for it. Good acting and genuine make a shoestring budget feel and slightly implausible plot fade into the recesses of your disbelief. A warm, poignant story about the kind of guy that we can all relate to.
George Parker "Two Family House" tells the story of a 1950's Staten Island man (Rispoli) who finds that the road from dreams to reality is paved with difficulty but leads to happiness. A cute little romantic comedy with a big heart, "TFH" makes some big points about the importance of being true to one's own conscience above all else as it spins its simple tale. Well received by critics, "TFH" is an enjoyable watch with a message for everyone mature enough for a mild R rating.