We’ve seen Ray Romano do this before on TV for several seasons. What we didn’t know is how adept he really is as a screenwriter. Somewhere in Queens gave me the same feelings I had when I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding for the first time, wonderfully capturing the day to day lives of Italian families. And, giving Laurie Metcalf more chances to show how awesome she is on the big screen.
This is the blue collar Italian Family in Queens who’s routine day in and day out is the same. Leo Rosso (Ray Romano) shows up late for his shift working for his family’s construction company, perennially scolded by his dad (Tony Lo Bianco), and little brother (Sebastian Maniscalco), who’s become dad’s favorite son. Leo loves his high school sweetheart turned wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf) of a few decades, but he comes alive when his son Michael aka Sticks (Jacob Ward) steps onto a basketball court. Sticks is good enough to make the local high school competitive, which makes Leo by association a little mini celeb on game nights. Things get shook up for the Rossos when Angela and Leo find out their painfully shy son has been dating Dani (Sadie Stanley), a firecracker of a girl that is going to have to meet Sticks’s family…and the flurry of judgments and comments that will come from it.
To thine own self be true, Ray Romano. The talented comedian/TV star seemingly finds more interesting stuff inside the blue collar NYC Italian family he grew up in. Here we get a new version of Romano’s life, with some new faces (Metcalf, Maniscalco) and some old (everybody loves Jon Manfrellotti). But with Romano living in those family dynamics for decades, the Somewhere in Queens script must have come easy for him. Like Romano himself, the big screen wrinkle here is Romano’s timid Italian amongst a sea of brash familiar Italian archetypes everyone has seen before. Romano’s played that character on TV for decades, so he makes it easier on himself by playing what he knows, and more importantly, giving all his stellar cast the fun parts and letting them cook. As exasperated as that family is going to Versailles Palace to celebrate a christening/wedding/divorce/prostate exam every weekend, I could’ve spent hours just bouncing around those parties, with the family eating and busting each other’s balls in various character groups. Other than the incredible amount of swearing, I can honestly say I’ve been to versions of this celebration many times being of Italian descent, and some of Romano’s conversations feel lifted from my own life. So congrats Ray, you get to keep your Italian card.
Even though Ray Romano played this timid Italian man on TV for so long, he still did a great job translating the character to the big screen. Unlike Loves Raymond who became a successful journalist, Leo Rosso is a failure other than marrying Angela and having Sticks. So like a good dad, he throws himself into making Sticks the best basketball player possible, but like a bad dad, he blurs Sticks’s success on the court as his own, making his schleppy persona much more like Robert than Raymond in his TV show. You can practically feel the desperation in Leo to make sure his son succeeds moreso that his life will have real purpose than actually for his son’s happiness for a long while, which Romano the actor and Romano the director find the perfect notes to play. But its the supporting cast that shines brightest here, especially the two women. Despite a sorta thankless part (the weakest part of Romano’s script), Sadie Stanley really lights up the screen to gloss over the story’s shortcomings. She holds her own at that big Italian dinner against the greats like Jon Manfrellotti, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Tony Lo Bianco, impressive on screen and in real life. Plus she has to carry all the scenes with Sticks by herself since the character I think says 12 words total in the movie. But like always, just cast Laurie Metcalf more. Playing the Italian version of her Lady Bird mom, Metcalf’s Angela resembles many of the great Italian women I know in my life. In public Angela is quick to speak up for herself and her family because she has to, but in private that abrasive persona melts away into a combination of emotions that Metcalf captures through the great character on the page that she brings to life with her sensational talent.
I’d like you to know Ray Romano, that Queens and the Italian neighborhoods of Chicago have a lot in common. There’s endless social gatherings and celebrations at the same spots. Italian families are just as brash, abrasive, and eventually loving. And when someone asks for meatballs, grandma would always make enough to feed a small army battalion. So when you decide to make your next film about Chicago’s Italian families, just hit me up, I’ll help you out with the script, and maybe have you come over to try my grandma’s incredible meatballs…the best on the planet.