Someone’s got daddy issues
>> City by the Sea is a more than
passable De Niro vehicle

by MATTHEW HAYS

It’s been a pretty bloody miserable few years for De Niro fans. The actor-widely regarded as one of the two greatest American screen actors (the other being Marlon Brando)-has been making terrifically lazy choices in material. From trite comedies to truly rotten crap like 15 Minutes, it’s been sad to watch such beautiful talent squandered. Long are the years since The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver or Jackie Brown even.

Thus even a not-entirely-great movie like City by the Sea feels like wafts of fresh air. It’s a serviceable script, bolstered by the verisimilitude factor: based on a true story makes it feel all the stranger. Based on an article, “Mark of a Murderer,” originally published in Esquire, the story is extraordinarily strange.

De Niro plays a seasoned cop who begins to investigate the murder of a drug dealer. He soon learns that the prime suspect in the case is none other than his estranged son (James Franco, who won the Golden Globe for his portrayal of James Dean in the made-for-cable movie), a junkie who still harbours a wicked grudge against dad for having divorced mom all those years ago, effectively abandoning the family unit. Franco is soon on the lam, and though most believe he did commit the murder, De Niro thinks he knows better, and must work against the clock to try and clear his son’s name.

Competently directed by Michael Caton-Jones, the film’s script is, while not a standout, often quite intriguing. There’s a good deal of suspense as De Niro attempts to track down his son, aware that his trigger-happy associates on the force will probably take Franco out if they get to him first. And there’s a lovely scene between De Niro and Frances McDormand (who plays his love interest), in which he has to break the news to her that he has a son, he beat his wife years earlier, his father was executed for a child kidnapping that went terribly wrong, and that his son is a junkie who might have just murdered someone. This is a moment of levity played touchingly by two superb actors.

I can’t lie: City by the Sea is by no means a perfect or even an excellent movie. But watching De Niro (and McDormand and Franco, who are also great actors) is so satisfying that it makes the film quite an entertaining two hours. This isn’t a particularly complex screenplay, but consider that De Niro’s character is. We’re meant to feel sympathy for a man who walked out on his kid some 14 years earlier, who once even beat his wife after a vicious yelling match escalated. De Niro pulls this off, perhaps not surprisingly, very well indeed.

So what we have is a taut little suspense film with a knockout cast that won’t change your life, but will entertain you. Lord knows, there have been worse crimes. :

City by the Sea opens Friday, Sept. 6

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