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Two Family House
Lions Gate Films Inc.


8.0

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 2 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language and brief sexuality

Starring Michael Rispoli, Kelly MacDonald, Kathrine Narducci, and Kevin Conway

The captivating and emotionally-charged story of a lovable loser in pursuit of his dream on Staten Island. (Lions Gate Films)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Raymond De Felitta
DIRECTED BY:	Raymond De Felitta
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 29, 2001 Video: May 29, 2001 Theatrical: October 6, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	104 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

It's the kind of small but amazing character study (think ``Marty'') that film lovers yearn for while griping that this type of picture no longer gets made. Turns out it does.

100

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Well-acted, lovingly put together and heartbreakingly honest.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The charm and art of De Felitta's gentle domestic sketch expand far beyond biographical borders.

Slate David Edelstein

Beat by beat, scene by scene, gorgeous...at times emotionally devastating.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

An unassuming little film that packs a huge emotional and artistic punch.

The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder

Experience filmgoing joy.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

A fairy tale that presents love as a case of mutual enchantment, Two Family House is not only uniformly well acted, superbly designed, lovingly lit, and sensitively scored, it's as romantic as it is funny.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

It's all about the little things, and the way in which the little things can steal into your heart in big ways.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A touching and effective film.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

In the face of intolerance, Two Family House lovingly celebrates the triumph of love and acceptance over prejudice.

LA Weekly Ron Stringer

Tenderhearted Staten Island Christmas comedy.

Variety Joe Leydon

For all the pic’s sentimentality, De Felitta refuses to back away from some unpleasantly realistic touches.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Writer-director Raymond De Felitta creates something wonderfully funny and touching.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

The epitome of the small, character-driven film that the indie movement was supposed to champion before it became a hip mirror of the Hollywood star system.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The story, which deals straightforwardly with racism, miscegenation, adultery and consumerism, is a fascinating combination: a movie with an almost Capraesque heart and pristine, almost stagey lighting schemes, that addresses uncomfortable moral issues with today's perspectives.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A sentimental slice of 1950s Italian-American life that doesn't soft-pedal its characters' simmering prejudices within their insulated community, or pander to their dreams of getting out.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A film of rare, delicate sensibility.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A charming, (mostly) briskly unsentimental love story, written, directed and acted with remarkable assurance.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

De Felitta dodges the temptations of sentiment and preachiness.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A gentle, soulful comedy about everyday dreams and what it takes to make them come true.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A tender and affirmative movie, if never a transporting one.

San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego

De Felitta has taken potentially overripe material and given it real heart.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Brimming over with affection and humanity, this memory drama about the destruction of one family and the birth of another is nostalgic in a good sense: funny, bittersweet, poignant.

Chicago Reader Joshua Katzman

Writer-director Raymond De Felitta has crafted a pleasant, low-key script that's full of small surprises, nice turns, and engaging, naturalistic dialogue, and he keeps the big, emotional family scenes, which often render this sort of material cliched and hackneyed, to a minimum.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Worth staying with for the respect it pays to its characters' emotions.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Sweet-natured but overdone, over-long film.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

The sappy trappings that director Raymond De Felitta piles onto the burgeoning romance story line kills any spark that remains, despite the best efforts of the cast to keep it real.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

Bighearted and wistful, but with no fresh spin or anything new to say.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it a9:
Very appealing flick.

Pat C. gave it a 7:
An intelligent mature telling of Rispoli & MacDonald forced to make choices and trying to make correct ones. Their possibilities so far have been trashed by their involvement with those who believe being caught up in themselves is some kind of noble quest and their best effort. Rispoli & MacDonald go on to find the cost of their freedom, which realistically is a satisfying but not exuberant outcome, as they avoid a life of regrets simply by asserting themselves in a neighborhood full of the careless, bigoted and domineering. However, the ending is formula - Rispoli's selfless act turns out to be self-interest after all, with his wife conveniently unredeemable, as the plot degenerates into the realm of soap opera romance. As the credits roll we should want to have met the narrator, but the show was interested in him only as an expendable tool to move the plot along. In the context of the energy the movie put on his value, that's despicable and implies the worst human shortcomings depicted in the story are actually alive and well in the makers of the film.

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Two Family House Lions Gate Films Inc.

Two Family House
Lions Gate Films Inc.