Dominick "Nicky" and Eugene "Gino" Luciano are fraternal twin brothers. Nicky has a learning disability, and Gino cares for him. Gino, a medical student, receives an offer to complete his education at Stanford University but fears Nicky will not be able to take care of himself. Nicky, a trash collector, works for Mr. Johnson.
One day, Nicky is collecting trash and sees Martin shoving his son Mikey down a flight of stairs. Martin calls 911, saying that Mikey fell. At the hospital, Martin tells Nicky that Mikey is dead and threatens to kill him if he tells anybody what he saw. Nicky goes to get a gun from Mr. Johnson's truck and returns to Martin's house. Nicky takes Mikey's baby brother from Martin and his wife Theresa at gunpoint, believing that he is protecting Joey from Martin, and is cornered by a SWAT Team in an empty building.
Gino, Martin, and Theresa race to the building. Gino confronts Nicky, whose sight of Mikey's abuse has triggered memories that their father beat him. Gino breaks down, admitting that Nicky is right; he protected Gino from their father, taking blows meant for his twin. Nicky comforts Gino, telling him he is not like their father and he loves him. They leave the building and give the baby back to Theresa. Nicky tells the police that Martin killed Mikey.
Martin is arrested, Gino leaves for Stanford and Nicky finds a new understanding of himself.
The film received positive reviews, holding a 78% rating on the film-review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 reviews. The consensus summarizes: "Thanks to strong performances and a steady directorial hand, Dominick and Eugene successfully navigates potentially tricky themes in thoughtful, compelling fashion without resorting to trite sentimentality."[3]
In a positive review, Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times commented the film "is drama nudged uneasily into melodrama by the events of its last quarter. What keeps it on the side of the angels are the warmth of the writing, especially in the crucial early scenes that set the boys' relationship; the depth and wonderment with which Hulce imbues Nicky, making him unworldly and sweet but never cloying, and the deep emotions tapped by Hulce and Liotta as these loving brothers."[4]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times said: "As directed by Robert M. Young, Dominick and Eugene has a refreshing plainness and a welcome unwillingness to milk the story for more pathos than is warranted. It examines the brothers' growing realization that, at 26, they must become more independent of one another. But it accomplishes this by means of genuinely involving plot developments, along with a rather startling denouement. The screenplay by Alvin Sargent and Corey Blechman, from a story by Danny Porfirio, might seem more frankly manipulative were it not for the mutual love and concern conveyed by the two stars."[5]
Desson Thomson of The Washington Post wrote, "Robert M. Young's 'Dominick and Eugene' wraps itself up neat as a button, but until that time Young produces an absorbingly messy blue-collar, white-collar Pittsburgh melodrama."[6]
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