City by the Sea

I like Deniro but the rest of the movie is sort of corny and not executed well. It has big ideas but just isnt realistic, especislly the dialouge. Everybody harps on the father for running out on his family or whatever but then you consider this culture and it's hardly unique. Again, I get it but it just wasn't executed well nor were any hardcore details realistic. I kinda felt like the filmmaker was in over his head

I really like this lesser known DeNiro flick. I like the story and the acting. A good movie that's well worth a watch.

Not quite sure why this was so buried that I didn't hear about it until 2023. Main fault that comes to mind is that the son should have been the lead and not the father. Regardless, I felt it was a solid enough story with decent acting that mostly rings true before the dramatic flare ending.

City By The Sea is a disappointing film. It is about a respected New York homicide detective who discovers the prime suspect in a murder case is his estranged son. Robert de Niro and James Franco give horrible performances. The script is badly written. Michael Caton-Jones did a terrible directing this movie. I was not impressed with this motion picture.

A movie that deals with the trial of fatherhood and abandonment.

Under the radar cop drama with a good, understated performance from De Niro.

Good movie interesting nothing groundbreaking

The pacing felt extremely poor and the genre felt muddled. It didn’t know if it wanted to be a drama, thriller, or neo-noir within the city. While I enjoyed De Niro and McDormand, they can’t save a mediocre story with no clear conscience

Interesting story and a great cast, unfortunately it doesn't know what to do with all of them.

Frequently, my favorite films are those that get about 50 percent on the Tomatometer. That usually indicates that a film is flawed in certain ways but admittedly has redeeming qualities. In the case of "City by the Sea," my advice is to ignore the naysayers. DeNiro is excellent here, considering what he has to work with. Yes, some of the dialogue is a bit stilted, and there is so much deep backstory concerning the characters that it's hard to explore everything in depth in an hour and 49 minutes. And, improbable as the story may seem, it really happened and was chronicled in a 1997 Esquire article. DeNori does taciturn better than anybody, but when it comes time to let loose emotionally, he delivers big time. In this film, there's a lot of sentimentality in the ending that some critics seemed to disdain. Well, what could be more sentimental than a father's love for his son, especially a father who abandoned him in his childhood? France McDormand is a welcome presence as DeNiro's middle-aged girlfriend. The two work together with the comfort and confidence of real pros. James Franco is strong as DeNiro's hapless junkie son. George Dzundza is also strong as the cop partner. He's so loveable that we figure he's going to be killed, and we're right. William Forsythe plays a bad guy. Eliza Dushky plays the son's girlfriend who is raising their little boy. That's about it. Neither turns in much of a performance, but their parts are underwritten out of necessity. Patti LuPone suffers that same fate--underwritten part, angry ex-wife.....She does her best. Long Beach, the "city by the sea" (The film was actually shot in the seedier parts of Atlantic City), looks like a wasteland, with abandoned buildings full of junkie needles, trashed amusement park games, graffiti everywhere, and lots of broken windows. It's an intriguing setting, beautifully photographed. Regardless of its minor shortcomings, this film is 100 percent DeNiro. He's the right actor to play an inner-directed, tightly closed, tortured man. And when he finally opens up and releases his angst, we get our money's worth. He's still, at the time of this film, 2002, one of our greatest actors. One more comment on the "sentimental: ending. Whe DeNiro's son is being hauled away in a cop car at the end, he looks at his dad through the back window and mouths the words, "I love you." DeNiro says nothing, but his face says it all. Even for a hard core cynic like me, it brought a tear to my eye. A good film, not perfect, but well worth a watch.