I paused somewhere early in the second half of City by the Sea, because I needed to find out what I was gonna watch after to cheer me up again. This movie is tough to watch, maybe more so for someone like me with a history of, albeit much less serious, abuse and absent father issues.
It's not a great film and, as I was reminded reading other reviews, the police stuff is pretty standard and mundane. Ironically I was expecting a good old fashioned police procedural where maybe, maybe not, the son did it, we just had to follow the evidence, and wait and see. It so happens I'm not spoiling anything, because the son did it, in the first scene. The son by the way, is played brilliantly by Franco. I can't wrap my mind around this guy, he is amazing in films like this one and 127 hours, yet he is painful to watch in other instances. Here he is brilliant as the strung out (it wouldn't surprise me if he lost weight for this role) and abandoned son, trying to escape his demons and reconcile with the fact that, even though he tries very hard not to, he still loves his father who left him, and desperately yearns for his approval and his trust. "It doesn't matter what I believe" says DeNiro at one point, being a cop before being a father "what if it matters to me?" his son asks.
Which brings us to DeNiro. It might take you a bit longer than me, or you might realize it right away, but DeNiro is no hero here. He is a BAD father, absolved only by way of his own father being worse. He believes in choice rather than circumstance, and he tells people like his new lover (McDormand, who does her best with the stock character she is given) that people make their own choices, yet it seems more like a reminder to himself of a sentiment he wants to believe, even has to. "He (Joey) made a choice to kill someone, just like you made a choice to be a b****" he tells his ex wife, convincing himself, and for a time the viewer, that he in fact had no choice but to walk away.
His struggle to come to terms with his loss and, as a result of his own choices, the loss he inflicted on his son, is the core of the movie and DeNiro does a great job. He is closed off as a man, and he is cold and calculated as a cop, but he is not heartless, even though it seems that way when he tells his partner Reg that if it comes to a standoff, and Reg kills his son, he will still have his friendship and respect. More and more you start to see the man for what he is, a hurting man, who has lost so much he can't endure anymore, and he just, in his own words, locks it away "cause otherwise it would be too difficult". Inevitably he will have to face his own choices, and the consequences of them, and it's through this journey that the movie earns its merit, even though it is often a heartbreaking journey to be a part of.
It's not a great film and, as I was reminded reading other reviews, the police stuff is pretty standard and mundane. Ironically I was expecting a good old fashioned police procedural where maybe, maybe not, the son did it, we just had to follow the evidence, and wait and see. It so happens I'm not spoiling anything, because the son did it, in the first scene. The son by the way, is played brilliantly by Franco. I can't wrap my mind around this guy, he is amazing in films like this one and 127 hours, yet he is painful to watch in other instances. Here he is brilliant as the strung out (it wouldn't surprise me if he lost weight for this role) and abandoned son, trying to escape his demons and reconcile with the fact that, even though he tries very hard not to, he still loves his father who left him, and desperately yearns for his approval and his trust. "It doesn't matter what I believe" says DeNiro at one point, being a cop before being a father "what if it matters to me?" his son asks.
Which brings us to DeNiro. It might take you a bit longer than me, or you might realize it right away, but DeNiro is no hero here. He is a BAD father, absolved only by way of his own father being worse. He believes in choice rather than circumstance, and he tells people like his new lover (McDormand, who does her best with the stock character she is given) that people make their own choices, yet it seems more like a reminder to himself of a sentiment he wants to believe, even has to. "He (Joey) made a choice to kill someone, just like you made a choice to be a b****" he tells his ex wife, convincing himself, and for a time the viewer, that he in fact had no choice but to walk away.
His struggle to come to terms with his loss and, as a result of his own choices, the loss he inflicted on his son, is the core of the movie and DeNiro does a great job. He is closed off as a man, and he is cold and calculated as a cop, but he is not heartless, even though it seems that way when he tells his partner Reg that if it comes to a standoff, and Reg kills his son, he will still have his friendship and respect. More and more you start to see the man for what he is, a hurting man, who has lost so much he can't endure anymore, and he just, in his own words, locks it away "cause otherwise it would be too difficult". Inevitably he will have to face his own choices, and the consequences of them, and it's through this journey that the movie earns its merit, even though it is often a heartbreaking journey to be a part of.