In the guilty film City Island, Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) wants to tell you his deepest, most personal secret. One thing he hides from his wife is that he aspires to be an actor. That’s why he tells spouse Joyce (Julianna Margulies) that he’s out playing poker when actually he’s taking an acting class with coach Michael Malakov (Alan Arkin). He reads a Brando biography in the bathroom and scurries when he’s caught, like some kind of hangdog, irrepressible teenage boy. His lame attempts at lies makes Joyce think he’s seeing another woman. For Vince, that’s preferable to the truth.
That’s not all he’s hiding. Vince, a corrections officer, chances upon the son he abandoned before birth. That kid, Tony (Steven Strait), is now all growed-up and in the clink for a grand theft auto beef. Tony would be released on parole if only he had a family member to claim him. Vince, with two-plus decades of guilt coming down on him, takes him under his care under the suspicious auspices of having Tony do a construction project for him.