Ray Romano’s Queens-based dramedy flick: ‘ultimately about family’

nypost.com:

Somewhere in Queens” — which also marks Romano’s big-screen directorial debut.“I’d never written a screenplay and neither had Mark,” Romano, 65, told The Post. “I knew what I like to write about and it’s this type of movie — a small but effecting dramedy — and I knew that I wanted to write about this Italian-American working-class world which I lived in and grew up in and, even more, married into,” said the former “Everybody Loves Raymond” star. “The family dynamics and all the tradition you see in the movie are more from my wife’s [Anna] side, actually — Sunday dinner, the banquet hall … I’ve been married for 35 years and it’s been [like that] since Day One.”“Somewhere in Queens,” opening April 21, features Romano as Leo Russo, who works in his family’s construction business alongside his more polished younger brother, Frank (Sebastian Maniscalco) and his brusque father, Dominic (Tony Lo Bianco), who built the business and barely tolerates Leo — who’s quick to quote from the “Rocky” movies, is slightly disheveled and is always late for work.Leo and his wife, Angela (Laurie Metcalf), a breast-cancer survivor, live in a quiet Queens neighborhood with their only child, Matthew (Jacob Ward), aka “Sticks,” a high school basketball star who’s about to graduate.

Sticks is socially awkward and doesn’t speak much outside of the house; Leo basks in his son’s reflected glory — which helps his oft-deflated ego — and in the attentions of Pamela (Jennifer Esposito), a widow who takes a shine to him.The situation takes a tricky, awkward turn when Leo and Angela discover that Sticks has a girlfriend: spirited, independent Dani (Sadie Stanley), who works as a waitress in a local diner and builds Sticks’ confidence and self-esteem.