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CITY BY THE SEA Send This Review to a Friend
Starring Robert De Niro, "City By the Sea" is one of the best cop stories in a while because it astutely combines action and credible emotional drama as opposed to most gimmicky action-thriller police yarns. Granted, there are a few nods to cliché, but the convincing acting by De Niro and others, the screenwriting reserve by Ken Hixon and the fine-tuned direction by Michael Caton-Jones make the film compelling, entertaining and even moving.
"City by the Sea" is inspired by Mike McAlary's 1997 Esquire article "Mark of a Murder." When you see "inspired by" in the credits you can generally forget about facts and know liberties are taken to weave the material into a dramatic movie. Likewise, although "City by the Sea," depicts action set in past-its-prime Long Beach, Long Island, the shooting was done in Asbury Park, New Jersey, which has run downhill from its once-attractive resort status. Such is movie magic. But the locale, captured effectively by cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub, makes the grade as a stand-in for decay, which is important to setting the atmosphere for the story.
The set-up provides plenty of room for high drama. Robert De Niro plays homicide detective Vincent LaMarca, who carries a heavy load of emotional baggage traced to when he was a child in Long Beach. His father was executed for kidnapping and the murder of a child when Vincent was eight years old. The shame and personal loss were unbearable. In turn, Vincent later walked away from his son in the context of a bitter, broken marriage to Maggie (Patti LuPone), who has never forgiven him. Their son Joey (James Franco) has grown into a drug addict, a mess who lives dangerously, nurses bitterness toward the father he never really knew and dreams of extricating himself by going to Key West in Florida, where he remembers a once-happy family trip. Meanwhile, Joey has been in a relationship with Gina (Eliza Dushku), a reformed drug addict and the mother of their young son. Vincent doesn't even know he has a grandchild.
Watching De Niro build his character is a treat as he conveys the bottled-up feelings of a tough guy who is a vulnerable loner. One line of dialogue, perfectly delivered, gives us the essence. When Vincent's detective partner Reggie (George Dzundza) invites him home, Vincent declines, replying, "You have a lot of love in your house. When I go there I feel uncomfortable." Vincent does have a relationship, with Michelle (Frances McDormand), who lives on the floor below in a modest Manhattan apartment house, but who is becoming frustrated with his inability to commit and his reluctance to share much of his life with her. When he finally does unload the details, one by one, she is so flabbergasted that the scene becomes one of comic relief. As usual, McDormand is terrific, a description that also fits the performances by Franco, Dushku, LuPone and Dzundza. (I watch and enjoy Dzundza on the endless "Law and Order" television re-runs.)
The plot mechanism is triggered when Joey becomes involved in a murder, is accused of another, and father-son issues must be tested and resolved in a lethal, vengeful atmosphere. By then the acting has made us care enough about the characters so that the film that could easily turn maudlin becomes believable and involving, especially when the anguish and desperation in Vincent erupts in the expert hands of De Niro. The final scene reaches back to a new-generation reprise of some former pleasures father and son had once shared and seems contrived. But most of this film, including the last scene, features honest emotion. It works. A Warner Brothers release.
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