“I love youse both.” A partier at the wedding-reception
Somewhere in Queens is about blue-collar Italians whose diction may be rough but whose hearts are the real thing. Director Ray Romano, not a stranger to playing a loveable schlub, is Leo, an outer-borough Italian-American father who works a little too hard at times to propel his basketball-adept son “Sticks” into a scholarship at a small college, Drexel, in Philadelphia. With some accuracy this dramedy has been labeled “crowd-pleasing.” Just think Everybody Loves Raymond for the big screen with longer time to flesh out character.
Romano directs and acts with a strength and depth he couldn’t have for a network sitcom.
Working during the day for his old-school dad (Tony LoBianco) in construction, Leo attends all Sticks’ games, brags about him, and regales everyone all the time about scenes from Rocky. Leo’s attention at the games hints at his need to be acclaimed where he’ll never be by his family.
The family feel here is authentic Italian, from the pasta-heavy dinners with friendly shouting to family secrets sharing, peppered with love and “youse” and an authentic “Mangia tutti.” As the shiest of the Corleone-like family, Leo has given this introversion to Sticks.
Quite differently, Thelma Ritter-like wife, Angela (Laurie Metcalf), after her breast cancer went into remission takes an extroverted hard line about husband Leo’s gaffs and about Sticks’ new love going south.
Sticks’ fumbling his new love, Dani (Sadie Stanley), has all the earmarks of his Dad’s ability to screw up the easiest plans. Indeed, when Leo begs Dani to stay with Sticks through the tryouts for Drexel, he’s tripping right into his biggest fatherly mistake ever.
Although Leo regularly fumbles such as the wedding speech he asks the videographer to erase, his heart is always there and big as when he makes a decision about having an affair with an attractive widower (Jennifer Esposito as the year’s best MILF). Even his mistake about his son’s scholarship is rooted in love mixed with a bit of harmless personal gain.
See this low-key, soft comedy for a pleasant evening with the family if only to meet shy, big-hearted Leo. He’s a loveable dad and husband and father. Just like Raymond.
Somewhere in Queens
Director: Ray Romano
Screenplay: Romano, Mark Stegemann
Cast: Romano, Laurie Metcalf
Run Time: 1h 46 m
Rating: R
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take out of WCBE 90.5 FM. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com
