Sea of Love

Sea of Love; romantic crime drama, USA, 1989; D: Harold Becker, S: Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, John Goodman, Michael Rooker, Richard Jenkins


New York City. Police detective Frank Keller gathers numerous criminals at a party and holds a speech where he tells them they are all under arrest. Then the police shows up and books them. Frank works successfully for 20 years now, but is rather depressive in private life because his wife left him. A series of murders shows up involving always the same pattern of men getting killed after placing personal adds in a magazine and going out an a date with an unknown woman, so Frank and his colleague Sherman start dating women who contact their adds. Frank meets blond Helen, a divorced mother of a girl, and starts a relationship with her despite the fact that she is suspicious. In the end, her jealous ex-husband turns out to be the killer, trailing all of her potential new lovers, so Frank throws him out from the window during a clash.

Gentle crime drama "Sea of Love" is an excellent little film about loneliness of police officers in a big city. It pays out to see it for the mesmerizing Al Pacino who hereby made his spectacular comeback to the big screens after 4 years, aesthetic cinematography by Ronnie Taylor, a fine mood, and a caring eye for little details: for instance, John Goodman's detective Sherman, disguised as a waiter, holds the glass from inside in order not to wipe out the suspects' fingerprints; during an investigation of a crime scene in an apartment, a police officer is chatting with the landlord and placing his cigarette in the ashtray, so Frank takes said cigarette and returns it to the police officer, telling him and his fingerprints to go outside, as to not meddle with any potential clues. When Frank and Sherman investigate single men who placed personal adds in a magazine, since they are victims of a serial killer, they are surprised one of them is married with kids, but claims he never met any of the women who contacted him for potential romance. The well written screenplay by Richard Price ("Mad Dog and Glory") portrays wonderfully and meticulously the mentality of the police life, so much it is delicious to watch it, with some fine dialogues (during his date with Helen in a bar, Frank mentions his life with his ex-wife: "The wedding lasted longer than the marriage!"), whereas some complaints could be addressed at an occasional empty scene, too long running time since some 20 minutes could have been cut for better pacing, and a few banal attempts at conjuring up of cheap suspense. However, the majority of the film has inspiration since it is crafted with finesse, even towards the ending which became "accidentally legendary" when a passerby bumped into Pacino, but he just professionally kept walking and talking to Ellen Barkin on the street.

Grade:+++