City by the Sea is comforting because of its
superiority over the dull releases over the past few weeks. Despite and few
errors in the plot and some unrealistic features, I’ll gladly take it any
day. On the other hand, if you don’t walk in with an open-mind, you will
most likely dislike it for its simplicity; though I thought that the
uncomplicated story worked to its advantage in the scenes full of dialogue
because it allowed them to be more easily crafted; by the actors.
One of the best things about the
film is its great performances. In recent days Robert DeNiro has been too
constrained in his roles, but this one allowed him to show what a wonderful
actor that he really is. With the absence of The Score, all of
his movies lately have been comedies, which he is good in, but is unable to
have the edge that he brings to the table in the drama genre, though this
fit him well and he was able to excellently mold the character he plays
(Detective Vincent LaMarka) to fit his own personality. James Franco was
also very good. I have never seen anyone play a druggie so well! His
character, could’ve been done in many ways, unlike DeNiro’s, but the
out-there type style that he chose worked just as good as any other I could
think of! The supporting characters played by Francis McDormand, George
Dzundza, and Patty LuPone were also tremendous, though no one could out
shine DeNiro and Franco’s infallible chemistry.
Though DeNiro was great in
performing, his character was not. There was one error in the screenplay
that involved Detective LaMarka that annoyed me tremendously. In the last
minutes of the movie, he is shot (this isn’t spoiling anything, don’t
worry); but doesn’t react. No twitch, no fall, he doesn’t even say “Ouch”;
instead he replies by saying “I’ll be O.K.”. Some might view that this as
the beauty of filmmaking, the way a story can be stretched, I know I have in
other incidences; but I this huge element of irony so desperately thrown at
the audience at such an emotionally stirring moment and terribly out of
place. This is one of the few times that there is an error in the otherwise
impenetrable screenplay is too noticeable to not talk about.
The score used in the film
entitled “City by the Sea”, which most likely inspired the title of the
entire flick worked great because it has a light sound, but has a tremendous
impact on viewers. It lets the acting stand out, and at the same time goes
with it beautifully. This is an area where some films in recent days have
gone flat. The director, producer, and studio have gone with out of place
music for money and sponsorship reasons, that doesn’t go well with the
motion picture at all; but in this the soundtrack was original and
individual, I wouldn’t have changed a thing if I could’ve.
I have a piece of advice for
the many people who see this movie over the years, and that is to disregard
the beginning of it and to pay close attention to the ending. I say this
because the film starts shaky, and takes a while to warm up to at first, but
after the end, every minute of it is worth your money. For the first thirty
minutes I was prepared to give it a two bucket rating, but a series of
intelligent events led me to strongly recommend it. Though at times very
outlandish and improbable, City by the Sea really leads you to
believe that the events shown could really happen, as they did, and the film
was able to combine reality and the unbelievable quite well, the movie
remained a movie but maintained a realistic feeling.
Clint Eastwood’s new movie,
that was released just a month ago, entitled Blood Work and
this film’s stories were supposed to be from the same general area; though
this movie looked a lot more like the real
Long Beach. In Blood Work
there is little graffiti, few old buildings, and everything looks well kept,
just like a movie set. The scenes intended to be in L.B. in City by
the Sea are gruesome, rusted, old, and dirty; this gives off a low-beat
feel, but captures the real effect of the city. This aspect may have saved
it from getting panned by me, because if the scenry wasn’t done so
realistically; the movie would’ve just been too outlandish to buy into. Like
the screenplay, the sets were simplistic, but they worked, and that’s what I
admired them for.
Director Michael Caton-Jones
and cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub did an exquisite job in making
this one, their inspirational choice of shots and camera-work to
use made the movie work in more ways than not. The specific style
they crafted in carrying out things, and panning in to make the important
dialogue stand out was crucial to the pictures well being. The acting was
good, though if the work that they performed off-screen hadn’t been there,
the suffering areas would’ve gone even more flat; killing the entire
feature. This is one of the ways that Eastwood’s work failed on
Blood Work, and I’m glad that this team was able to avoid it.
All in all, City by
the Sea is an excellent way to spend one hour and forty eight minutes.
It contains wonderful acting, direction, shooting locations, sets,
direction, cinematography, and score; though it plummets when improbable. It
is nice to see something good come out of a major studio after the
end-of-summer tragedies Fear dot com, Simone, and
xXx (Triple X). This type of material is a
refreshing and unique post-season treasure.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews
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