City By the Sea Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)August 28th, 2002
CITY BY THE SEA
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When the body of a drug dealer washes up on the Jersey shore, it's just another
day on the job for Detective Vincent LaMarca (Robert DeNiro) and his partner Reg (George Dzundza, "Instinct") until they trace the victim to Long Beach, LaMarca's former home. A visit to his former precinct gives a chance to catch up with old colleagues and pick up the latest leads, one of which, a Chevy Nova's licence number, leads to Vincent's estranged son Joey in "City by the Sea."
DeNiro finally returns to form in his best dramatic outing since 1995 while up and comer James Franco ("Spider-Man") proves his Golden Globe win for last year's James Dean TV biopic was no fluke. Screenwriter Ken Hixon ("Inventing the Abbotts") has fleshed out the Esquire article ('Mark of a Murderer' by Michael McAlary) which first brought to light LaMarca's amazing cross-generational saga.
LaMarca leads a singular, routine existence. Girlfriend Michelle (Frances McDormand, "The Man Who Wasn't There") who lives one floor below his Manhattan walkup dares to ask 'What's next?' one night in bed and Vincent replays their past 24 hours. When he discovers his son is a murder suspect, his emotional withdrawal prods Michelle to demand he open up to her. She gets
far more than she bargained for when Vincent releases a torrent of pain, beginning with his abandonment by his own father, executed for a bungled kidnapping death, the outburst of violence that ended his marriage and the resulting difficulties that caused him to withdraw from his own son's life. His story gets even more complex when, about 24 hours later, he discovers he's the grandfather of Angelo and is left to care for the child by its terrified mother Gina (Eliza Dushku, "The New Guy"). Then his partner is killed and the murder weapon is covered in Joey's prints.
'It doesn't matter if your father was a cop or a murderer - some kids' dads aren't coming home,' Vincent tells Michelle about his incredible history, which is repeating as he speaks. Director Michael Caton-Jones (1997's "The Jackal") evenly deals the father and son parallels as DeNiro works with the complexities of shaping his character via a trio of generations outside his own. DeNiro comes to full boil delivering an emotional plea to Joey to turn himself in. The actor takes the lid off of long withheld feelings for the boy he left behind. Franco has the hollow, dead-eyed look of a hardcore junkie, but desperation fuels jittery pleas for help, first from the mother (Patty LuPone, "Heist") who's believed in him one time too many, then from a dealer who declares him a dead man.
Support is able, beginning with McDormand's strong turn as the woman who makes her lover face himself. Dushku is a far cry from her "New Guy" cheerleader with this performance as an ex-junkie trying to make a go of it for her child. Anson Mount ("Crossroads") is fine as an upstanding young cop who helps LaMarca when the rest of the police force has branded him as guilty as it has his son. William Forsythe ("Blue Streak") gives another patented bad guy turn as Snake.
Caton-Jones casts the city of Long Beach as a symbolic representation of the lives of the LaMarca men. Vincent remembers a city of the 1950's, all shiny and new, as he and Reg drive through what now resembles a war zone. The film recalls "Requiem for a Dream," where Coney Island junkies, like Joey, dream of a better life in Florida. Cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub ("The Jackal") and production designer (Jane Musky, "Finding Forrester") nicely contrast the expanses of the run down seaside community with LaMarca's home in bustling Manhattan. The characters in "City by the Sea" do not appear to live on Hollywood sets, but in the real, gritty world (Art direction by Darrell K. Keister ("Finding Forrester"), set decoration by Lynn Tonnessen, costume by Richard Owings). John Murphy's ("Snatch") original music lends an air of nostalgic melancholy.
"City by the Sea" wraps a little too neatly for the messy real life tangle which it documents, but a strong sense of a particular world coupled with some fine acting make it a story with staying power.
B
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