Two Family House

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.

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.