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City By the Sea
By Dave DePino
At times, truth is stranger than fiction. And sometimes, when an actual story is used as the basis for a film, it could very well come across as a bit convoluted and unbelievable. Case in point: director Michael Caton-Jones' intense and mesmerizing City by the Sea,(screenplay by Ken Hixon) based on the sobering, 1997 Esquire magazine story by Pulitzer Prize winner Mike McAlary. This surprisingly riveting cop-tale spreads the old theory of "the sins of the father" over three generations in hopes of preventing sins, guilt, and recrimination from creeping into the fourth. The tragic story revolves around the lives of the male members of the LaMarca family, men who occasionally functioned on both sides of the law.
The drama is set in a badly trashed and mostly vacant section of New York's once famous and fabulous Boardwalk of Long Beach. The area now looks more like the aftermath of a bombing raid. The film opens when Joey LaMarca (James Franco) - a. k.a. Joey Nova because of his rundown, classic car - is looking to sell his guitar to score a fix. His drug connection puts him in a situation that turns bad and Joey ends up stabbing a dope dealer in self-defense. Terrified, Joey goes on the run leaving his girlfriend (Eliza Dushku) and his little son. He really isn't a bad guy but Joey fell into street life and got hooked on drugs when his father walked out.
Homicide Detective Vincent LaMarca (Robert DeNiro), a divorced fiftysomething, is the kind of guy who keeps people at arm's length. Even his neighbor, who happens to also be is girlfriend, Michelle (Frances McDormand), doesn't really know much about him. Vincent and his partner, Reg (George Dzundza), are on the scene to discover the body of the dealer Joey killed. Vincent has been estranged from his son and has no idea Joey is involved. As the evidence mounts, the picture becomes clear to the detective. He goes looking for his son at his ex-wife Maggie's (Patti LuPone) house. Maggie is very bitter and justifiably caustic after Vincent's 14-year absence. She also has some lingering memories of his physical abuse towards her. She isn't about to help. Clues lead to a huge, deserted building on the boardwalk where Joey is supposed to be holing up. With Vincent taken off the case for obvious reasons, his partner Reg and another cop enter the deserted building looking for Joey. Reg encounters a major drug dealer, Spyder (William Forsythe), instead of his partner's son. Spyder kills Reg and it is assumed Joey did it. So now Joey isn't just a killer, but presumed a cop-killer as well.
If that doesn't sound contrived enough, try this real, additional fact on for size. When Vincent was a child, his father was sent to the electric chair for kidnapping a baby who was accidentally smothered under a blanket and died. That event was a big story then and now the press is having a field day throwing around "Murder Gene" theories. All the loose threads of both murders, the unresolved father/son situations, and the fate of a tattered, extended family has to be dealt with in the heat of extreme passion.
The production, fact based though it may be, just screams melodrama; however, the talent involved - in front and behind the camera - makes it work. True this is not a structurally perfect film and there are a few flaws, mostly in some bits of corny dialogue, but overall, the film is quite entertaining. The evolution of the drama will hold your interest from beginning to end. It takes a lot of surprising turns and even though you might know, or think you know where you will end up, you'll enjoy the ride with a few surprises.
The most outstanding asset in this film is Franco's heartbreaking performance. He is fascinating to watch. He brings an enormous depth and sensitivity to his role. The camera loves eavesdropping on his mastery of craft, offering up a reflection of a young man cornered by life with nowhere to go. He makes Joey someone to really care about. Franco will be someone to watch out for as he puts this gem along side his memorable TNT portrayal of James Dean in the TV biopic.
For City by the Sea, De Niro opts out of doing his familiar De Niro persona. Here, he actually takes on a character with a rather tortured soul and a troubled heart that seems, at times, to want to burst out of his chest. He is a public hero, but he is not presented bigger than life. He's just a regular guy who does his dangerous job well and makes lots of mistakes in his life. His vulnerabilities are equaled by his strengths as he faces the ghosts of the past, the frenzies of the present, and the fearful mysteries of the future. There is a definite chemistry between director and actor coming into play here. De Niro has two amazingly well-tailored female connections that fully flesh out the three dimensions of Vincent's personality. First, his sparring partner, with a wonderfully hot blooded LuPone and second, his mellow and understanding girlfriend, McDormand doing some clever and generous understating to help render the many different levels of the piece. In supporting roles, Dushku and Forsythe do fine work. Cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaun nicely realizes Jane Musky's production design and Patricia Woodbridge's art direction while meticulously tying the drama to the bleakness of the locations. In old-fashioned style, John Murphy's musical score helps provoke a tear or two.
The video suggestion for the week is a no-brainer. It would be TNT's the psychological 2001 biopic, "James Dean," directed by Mark Rydell and staring James Franco in the title role. Franco excels in both his own and Dean's intensity placing himself more in the neighborhood of Brando, Clift, or Newman rather than along side most of his very capable contemporaries like Pitt, Dorf, or DeCaprio. An early view of this young actor's commitment to art is on a par with Johnny Depp or the Phoenix brothers, Joaquin and the late River.
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