Themes: Fathers and Sons, Haunted By the Past, Murder Investigations
Main Cast: Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand, James Franco, Eliza Dushku, William Forsythe
Release Year: 2002
Country: US
Run Time: 108 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A man struggling to come to terms with the sins of his father makes the terrible discovery that his own son has fallen into a life of crime in a drama based on a true story. Vincent LaMarca (Robert DeNiro) is a dedicated and well-respected New York City police detective who has gone to great lengths to distance himself from his past; four decades earlier, Vincent's father Angelo killed a young child, and since then Vincent has carried emotional scars from this incident that he refuses to show to the world. Vincent lives alone in a small apartment building, though he has nurtured a close if tentative relationship with his downstairs neighbor, Michelle (Frances McDormand). One day, Vincent and his partner, Reg Duffy (George Dzundza), are assigned to investigate a murder when the body of a young man is found dead in a dumpster. It turns out the body was that of a drug dealer, and the dealer's partner in crime, Spyder (William Forsythe), believes the killer was one of his regular customers -- a junkie would-be musician who calls himself Snake (Brian Tarantina). City By the Sea was adapted from a piece by journalist Mike McAlary which first appeared in Esquire magazine; the cast also includes Eliza Dushku and Anson Mount. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
There's no Hollywood gloss to speak of in City by the Sea -- every character has a grungy, outer-boroughs brokenness that's totally life-sized. This is more a strength than a weakness of Michael Caton-Jones' film, but it leaves things so workmanlike that the movie blends into the cinematic woodwork. Still, a movie should hardly be blamed for refusing to elbow its way into the spotlight, and City by the Sea is a nice enough little cop noir set among the detritus of a splintered family and a broken-down New York boardwalk town. At its best moments, it resembles the kind of blue-collar American story a director like Sidney Lumet would have made in the 1970s. At other times, it tries a little too hard for thematic parallels between characters, resulting in some clunky, overly expository exchanges in the dialogue. Robert De Niro leads a cast of actors who effectively disappear into their roles. Fresh off a series of contrived characters in contrived movies, De Niro willfully downsizes to something more organic and small, which also pays homage to his New York roots. It's a successful endeavor. Frances McDormand initially seems too WASPish a choice for Vincent LaMarca's gruff-cop world, but she soberly crystallizes some of the issues facing him about choices and responsibility. James Franco goes deeper than his matinee-idol looks, arriving at a place where the audience has no trouble believing him as a skuzzy junkie. It's the strong character development in Ken Hixon's script that eventually creeps up and gives City by the Sea whatever emotional resonance it has. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
William Forsythe - Spyder; George Dzundza - Reg Duffy; Patti LuPone - Maggie; Anson Mount - Dave Simon; John Doman - Henderson; Brian Tarantina - Snake; Jay M. Boryea - Picasso; Leo Burmeister - Lieutenant Katt; Matthew Cowles - Arnie; Michael Dellafemina - Angelo LaMarca; Gregg Edelman - A.P.C. Johnson; Mark LaMura - Mayor Jackson; Michael P. Moran - Herb; Nestor Serrano - Rossi; Stephi Lineburg - Bree; Drena De Niro - Vanessa Hansen; Jim Marcus - Medical Examiner; Jason Winther - Jason; Linda Emond - Margery; Cyrus Farmer - Carl; Jill Marie Lawrence - Evelyn; Dominick Angelo Cangro - Baby Angelo; Pasquale Enrico Cangro - Baby Angelo; Leslie Cohen - Jean; Michelle Daimer - Terry; Teresa Kelsey - Reporter Laura; Joanne Lamstein - Screaming Teenager; Orlando Pabjoy - Will; Teresa Woods - Reporter Carol
Credit
Patricia Woodbridge - Art Director, Amanda Mackey-Johnson - Casting, Cathy Sandrich Gelfond - Casting, Johnny Keating - Consultant/advisor, Trevor Ward - Consultant/advisor, Laura Viederman - Co-producer, Richard Owings - Costume Designer, Tom Reilly - First Assistant Director, Michael Caton-Jones - Director, Jim Clark - Editor, Don Carmody - Executive Producer, Andrew Stevens - Executive Producer, Roger Paradiso - Executive Producer, Dan Klores - Executive Producer, John Murphy - Composer (Music Score), Jason Alexander - Musical Direction/Supervision, Don Fleming - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jane Musky - Production Designer, Karl Walter Lindenlaub - Cinematographer, Michael Caton-Jones - Producer, Brad Grey - Producer, Elie Samaha - Producer, Matthew Baer - Producer, B. Lynn Tonneson - Set Designer, Tom Nelson - Sound/Sound Designer, Ken Hixon - Screenwriter, Michael Slovis - Additional Cinematography, Gerard Sava - Additional Cinematography, John E. Sullivan - Visual Effects Supervisor, Boots Shelton - First Assistant Camera, Kevin Williams - Grip, Jay Halligan - Grip, Paul Halligan - Grip, Paul J. Wilson - Grip, Simon Denny - Music Producer, Dave McMoyler - Supervising Sound Editor, John Milcetic - Electrician, Glenn Davis - Electrician, Dave Cambria - Electrician, James J. Harker - Electrician, Fran Corbacho - Electrician, Gavin Curran - Electrician, Patrick Fontana - Electrician, Ozz Phothivongsa - Electrician, Nate Scaglione - Electrician, Brian Stocklin - Electrician, Joel T. Pashby - First Assistant Editor, Beatrice Sisul - First Assistant Editor, Sonia Gonzalez - First Assistant Editor, Morgan Neville - First Assistant Editor, Barbara Cohig - Scenic Artist, James Geyer - Scenic Artist, Michele Mayas - Scenic Artist, Gerard Pizzarello - Scenic Artist, Tom Schnaidt - Second Assistant Camera, Erin Lewin - Set Dresser, Nick Neutra - Foley Mixer, Mike Delaney - Generator Operator, Kyle Stephens - Generator Operator, Nelson-Duerrstein - Negative Cutter, Elissa Donenfeld - Production Secretary, Igor Srubshchik - Video Assist, Alyson Wellins - Art Department Coordinator, Steve Boucher - Assistant Avid Editor, Charles Whitney - Standby Carpenter
City by the Sea is a 2002 film starring Robert De Niro and Frances McDormand. It deals with a family and the problems of wayward youth are set against a man trying to break with his past. It was directed by Michael Caton-Jones. It is based on a story of Vincent LaMarca.
De Niro plays a veteran street cop, the son of an executed killer. While his father didn't intend to kill the child he kidnapped, the son reaps the reputation anyway and decides to be so good that he is beyond reproach. Meanwhile, his son, a drug user with fading memories of high school athletic glory, gets wrapped up in a drug-related killing and asks his father for help. After a failed marriage and an estranged son suddenly come to the attention of de Niro's current girlfriend, she asks why he won't help his son. He has tried so hard to distance himself that he cannot accept any intrusion into his contentment. His son gets deeper into trouble when the local drug enforcer (played by William Forsythe) kills a cop looking to help de Niro clear his son's name, and the murder is pinned on the son. In the end De Niro sets aside his self-imposed isolation and helps, drawing the enforcer to him.
Though this film is based on a true story - The murder of James Brown in the mid 90s - it is almost entirely fictitious. Coincidentially, LaMarca's grandfather had committed a kidnapping in 1956, and it is often confused as the basis for the movie. The differences between the film and the events in real life are as follows:
Lamarca's father did not accidentally kill an infant. He kidnapped little Peter Weinberger, walked into the woods with him, put him on the ground face down, and walked away, basically ensuring that the baby would die.[1]
Long Beach, New York is not the run-down community as portrayed in the film. All of the Long Beach scenes in the film were shot in Asbury Park, NJ, which was intentionally made to look more dilapidated than either town ever was in real life.
