Vincent LaMarca is a dedicated and well-respected New York City police detective who has gone to great lengths to distance himself from his past, but then makes the terrible discovery that his own son has fallen into a life of crime.
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City by the Sea is directed by Michael Caton-Jones and adapted to screenplay by Ken Hixon from the article Mark of a Murderer written by Michael McAlary. It stars Robert De Niro, James Franco, Eilza Dushku, Frances McDormand, George Dzundza and William Forsythe. Music is scored by John Murphy and cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub.Based on a true story, plot finds De Niro as Vincent LaMarca, a veteran New York cop who carries around the burden of being the son of an executed child killer. Though comfortable in his life, where he gets on with his cop partner and has a romantic relationship with a lady in his apartment block, things quickly grow dark when it transpires that Vincent's estranged son Joey (Franco), a drug user out at Long Beach, has apparently committed murder.With the trailers at the time of release wrongly hinting at some explosive cop drama, and with De Niro's standing as a serious drama actor on the wane, City by the Sea has pretty much failed to inspire some steadfast support from 2002 onwards. Yet it's well worth inspection by those film fans who appreciate a crisp screenplay and top line acting.De Niro is on form, without doubt, but he is clearly helped by having actors around him who can compete on the same terms. There's a believability to the core relationships in the film, be it De Niro and Franco as father and son, or De Niro and McDormand as lovers, the writing calls for actors of strength to hold court and make this dialogue heavy picture worth attention. And they do, very much so.Narratively the piece thrives on irony and the great old noir staple of past events looming large over a protagonist. Primarily it's about how Vincent deals with the splinters of his past suddenly surfacing in his life. This proves to make the film more a drama than a thriller, there are no high octane deaths and dismemberment's, no back street alleyway wackings, this is very much a character driven, unpretentious and emotionally affecting movie.Just like his actors, Caton-Jones is perfectly restrained, his direction has a nice flow that aids the story, no tricks are needed to beef up the human interest. He allows the principal character's stories to build, making sure that Hixon's adult screenplay comes to the fore; that character reactions are not twee or too far fetched. In fact it's very refreshing to see the way McDormand's girlfriend reacts to the "new" information she has to deal with in her love life. Visually there's some lovely work by Lindenlaub (Rob Roy), where nightscapes and a red sunset stand tall and proud, and Murphy's score is thankfully unobtrusive given the nature of the story. 7/10
Who knows why critics like or dislike films. This is a good solid film, with a huge cast and they all do a wonderful job. The script is good, the cinematography too is fine, and the entire story telling is just great. James Franco is amazing! I don't want to even suggest what his role is in the film - because if you don't know - let him surprise you. This is one of those films that I had not seen until it was on cable, and my apologies for not seeing it sooner.The direction of the film - great! It is gritty, it is at times dark and hard, at times tugs on the heart.Congratulations to the entire cast and crew! EVERYONE was great.
It is strange how a method actor like de Niro relies on conveying such an introvert sense of undoing. Not at his best here, even though at the end he delivers a terrific lesson in rhythm with his speed-up, pant-in-check monologue. I liked the fact that this monologue is sculpted so, given the sense of alarm it had to take into consideration - and I mean it in terms of direction - but it comes too late for any defining purposes. DeNiro is good, yet something lacks, he fails to give a full characterization, contrasted with McDormant who achieves it excellently. The story feels anachronistic and the soundtrack absurd. But one make actually - unexpectedly - like James Franco's Osborne - yeah, from his "Spiderman" character - grin that flashes menacingly at some point.
In the mid-1990s, Quentin Tarantino argued that his idol Robert De Niro had let quality control in his career slip. "The care in the work isn't there anymore", he noted. Well, if you wanted proof of that argument, this movie is it.Reuniting with his "This Boy's Life" director Michael Caton-Jones (this is easily the worst movie he's ever directed), Robert De Niro sleepwalks his way through this movie for the money. He's overweight and looks utterly bored throughout. Only at the end does De Niro wake up and start trying to come up with something, but by then it's too late to care.Allegedly based on a true story (you could have fooled me, the script is an awful collection of cop clichés and junkie stereotypes), the film concerns the drug-addicted son of a cop who accidentally gets caught up in murders and goes on the run. De Niro plays the father cop who must choose between family loyalty and his job (have a guess which one he chooses. It's obvious from the start).With De Niro on autopilot, it falls to the rest of the cast to try and cover up for him. William Forsythe, De Niro's co-star from "Once Upon A Time In America", is in this as a drug dealer called Spyder (original name, huh? He has a conversation with a junkie that goes "Hey, Snake." "Hey, Spyder." Yup, it's that bad.) George Dzundza crops up as the hero's obese cop partner who gets bloodily murdered (the exact same role he played in "Basic Instinct.") The younger actors playing the junkies do everything obvious and overdo it at that. The only person who comes out of this with any credibility is Frances McDormand who manages to work up something realistic in her scenes with De Niro, but you can't polish a turd and this script is just that.The explanation for De Niro's son turning to drugs is an unbelievable "you-weren't-there-for-me-dad" self-pitying rant at the end. Yes, folks, drug addiction really is that simple. How this script got through to production is a mystery. It's amateur hour nonsense.This movie is so unambitious and uninspired; you have to wonder why they bothered making it at all. Avoid.
