Sea of Love (Collector's Edition)

 

 

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An intelligent, very well acted character thriller, with a nourish
mood, and a sharp, smart script by Richard Price.

Al Pacino is at his considerable best as a lonely, hard-drinking cop
who falls for a woman who just may be the killer he's searching for,
played with sexy intensity by Ellen Barkin. John Goodman is also very
good as Pacino's partner on the case.

A clever, tense tale, well told, and that's enough to make a very good
film.

This is a movie that I have seen and enjoyed many times which says that the story has many facets. It is cleverly directed. Just the right amount of roughness, intrigue and suspense. In the end we get a hint that Ellen Barkin really is the killer, but she and Al Pacino fall in love and that conquers all, just as it should. A thrilling movie to watch, with strong performances from all actors. Well worth having on your shelf to watch once a year!

Sea of Love is certainly a better than average steamy crime thriller, but it didn't really bowl me over. Pacino's very good, of course, and Ellen Barkin more than holds her own against him, but Pacino's character can become tiresome after a while, and what I regard as a pretty sizeable red herring thrown into your lap midway through the story makes the ending a little less dramatic. I'm not saying the mystery is predictable - it's just not that shocking of a surprise.

Frank Keller (Al Pacino) isn't exactly Steve McGarrett material when it comes to his career as a detective, mainly because the guy is basically pretty pathetic. His wife left him for another detective on the force, and he's not handling that very well - drunken calls in the middle of the night to his ex-wife are not uncommon. The guy drinks like a fish all day and all night, whether he's on duty or not, he gets into serious shoving matches with other cops, and he spends more time getting under the skin of his fellow detective (and ex-wife's new man) than investigating the crime at the scene of the film's opening murder. Later on, he gets into a serious relationship with one of the murder suspects, which has to break a lot of rules in the old code of conduct. About all he gleans from the first murder is the fact that someone plugged a fat naked guy in the back of his head and that the killer was apparently a big fan of the song Sea of Love. Fortunately for him, a Queens detective (played by John Goodman) working on a similar case teams up with him on a two-man task force to find the mutual killer. The common thread linking the murders together is the fact that each victim had recently placed a poetic personal ad in the newspaper. Since no one seems to have bothered looking at any of the evidence too closely, Keller and Detective Sherman (Goodman) decide to place a similar ad in the paper, meet all of the women who respond, get their prints and compare them with those found at the murder scenes, and break the case wide open.

Keller meets Helen (Ellen Barkin) at one of these undercover dates. She blows him off early on, before she even comes close to leaving a fingerprint on anything. When they meet accidentally soon thereafter, though, a spark is lit, and the two are lovers before you can say Jack Sprat. Frank puts his feelings for Helen above his job, thereby leaving Helen hanging out there as a possible murder suspect. This is where all of the suspense comes in; is she or isn't she? The story zigs and zags both ways on the question, leaving the viewer in a measure of doubt until the very end. The whole thing turns into a weird love story for the most part, with Frank trying to avoid losing Helen even as he sometimes wonders whether she's the killer he's looking for. It is quite suspenseful, largely thanks to Ellen Barkin's very strong performance. The ultimate ending's a little weak, but that takes nothing at all away from the sustained mystery that will command your rapt attention all the way up to that point.

It's not hard to see why the movie was so successful. It just goes to show what good acting and a reasonably strong script can do for a movie. There are probably two camps when it comes to the ending, I should note - but it's not a hate it or love it thing. Some will not find it all that surprising, while others may feel as if it comes right out of left field. Either way, Sea of Love is a film that all fans of steamy thrillers can lose themselves in and, at the very least, come out feeling reasonably satisfied.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Ellen Barkin is on the prowl
When "Sea of Love" comes to mind, it's difficult not to think about the powerful sexual attraction between Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin that consumes both actors and makes their... Read more

Published on May 31 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars STYLIZED EROTICA
With the exception of 1983's SCARFACE,the 80's were a bust for Pacino. This was his comeback outing and it is a stylized erotic journey that would have been grossly misplaced... Read more

Published on Mar 4 2004 by Gregory Saffady

5.0 out of 5 stars Great thriller!
I really liked this well-directed movie that is full of suspense throughout. Barkin absolutely sizzles. She has never looked better. Read more

Published on Feb 12 2004 by Michael A. Newman

4.0 out of 5 stars Barkin, baby, where'd you go?
This is one of those films I love- the kind that sits on my shelf, I forget about for a while, and when I finally remember it one rainy day and put it on, it seems like new all... Read more

Published on Feb 5 2004 by littlecaspian

5.0 out of 5 stars Really scary, really sexy, really really good
Damn, this one keeps you on the edge of your seat. Pacino plays a NYPD detective who falls in love with Ellen Barkin, a woman who's the main suspect in a murder case he's... Read more

Published on Dec 17 2003 by Peggy Vincent

3.0 out of 5 stars Lonely hearts...
A tightly crafted police thriller starring Al Pacino as an aging New York City detective. He falls in love with the prime suspect in a serial-killer case in which the murderer... Read more

Published on Oct 26 2003 by Cody

4.0 out of 5 stars Sea Change For Pacino
Sea Of Love brought actor Al Pacino's career back to form, after a string of disappointing movies had him in a bit of a slump.

Det. Read more

Published on Oct 8 2003 by T. Lobascio

3.0 out of 5 stars Movie Great, DVD NOT
I love this movie and my criticism has nothing to do with it. The dvd was a disappointment. First, it bothers me that a widescreen version is not even offered. Read more

Published on Jun 19 2003

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware - full screen version cropped to fit widescreen
This version (Collector's Edition)
is worse than the previous pan & scan full screen version. Read more

Published on May 9 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Romantic Thriller
My three favorite romantic thrillers are "Vertigo" "Body Heat" and "Sea of Love". Read more

Published on Dec 15 2002 by Paul Kyriazi

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