"City By the Sea" should be in a double feature with the remake of "Insomnia." Like Al Pacino, here his compadre Robert DeNiro is a masterful old pro as a cop caught in a web of the personal and the criminal.
DeNiro is wonderfully matched in the cast, with Frances McDormand (three cheers for sweet, realistic, age-appropriate romances! though I couldn't figure out what her theater job was) and two of my favorite young TV actors who are clearly juiced to be acting across from DeNiro, James Franco (of "Freaks and Geeks") and Eliza Dushku ("Faith" on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel"). A couple of DeNiro's fellow cops are also from TV precincts, George Dzundza of "Law and Order" and John Doman ("Major Rawls" of "The Wire").
Inspired by the true events told in a magazine story by the late Mike McAlary ("Mark of a Murderer" in Esquire, September 97, Vol. 128, Issue 3, p. 88, 11 pages), the intriguing plot and DeNiro's unhistrionic anguish combat some mawkish changes from the true story. While the original and the film's story take place in Long Beach, Long Island, the film was actually shot in Asbury Park, NJ; too bad they didn't think to put Springsteen's original version of "My City in Ruins" over the closing credits, as that's what it was first applied to, but maybe they figured that as it is there are occasional scenes of a New York City skyline with the Towers (where it looks like DeNiro literally rolled out of bed from his Tribeca loft to film) so it could have been awkward.
(originally written 9/15/2002)
DeNiro is wonderfully matched in the cast, with Frances McDormand (three cheers for sweet, realistic, age-appropriate romances! though I couldn't figure out what her theater job was) and two of my favorite young TV actors who are clearly juiced to be acting across from DeNiro, James Franco (of "Freaks and Geeks") and Eliza Dushku ("Faith" on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel"). A couple of DeNiro's fellow cops are also from TV precincts, George Dzundza of "Law and Order" and John Doman ("Major Rawls" of "The Wire").
Inspired by the true events told in a magazine story by the late Mike McAlary ("Mark of a Murderer" in Esquire, September 97, Vol. 128, Issue 3, p. 88, 11 pages), the intriguing plot and DeNiro's unhistrionic anguish combat some mawkish changes from the true story. While the original and the film's story take place in Long Beach, Long Island, the film was actually shot in Asbury Park, NJ; too bad they didn't think to put Springsteen's original version of "My City in Ruins" over the closing credits, as that's what it was first applied to, but maybe they figured that as it is there are occasional scenes of a New York City skyline with the Towers (where it looks like DeNiro literally rolled out of bed from his Tribeca loft to film) so it could have been awkward.
(originally written 9/15/2002)