''City by the Sea'' is a 2002 American

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

film starring Robert De Niro,

James Franco James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-M ...

Eliza Dushku Eliza Patricia Dushku (; born December 30, 1980) is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Faith in the supernatural drama series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1998–2003) and its spin-off series ''Angel'' (2000–2003). She als ...

Frances McDormand Frances Louise McDormand (born Cynthia Ann Smith; June 23, 1957) is an American actress and producer. Throughout her career spanning over four decades, McDormand has received numerous accolades, including four Academy Awards, two Primetime Emm ...

and William Forsythe. It deals with the family problems of a wayward youth and is set against a man trying to break free of his past. It was directed by

Michael Caton-Jones Michael Caton-Jones (born Michael Jones; 15 October 1957) is a Scottish director and producer of film and television. His credits include the World War II film '' Memphis Belle'' (1990), the romantic comedy '' Doc Hollywood'' (1991), the biog ...

. It is based on the story of Vincent LaMarca.

Plot

Vincent LaMarca ( Robert De Niro) is a veteran

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

detective. When Vincent was only 8 years old, his father was executed for murder, because a child whom his father (also a cop but desperate for money) had

kidnap In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

ped for ransom died when in his care. Vincent feels guilty for his father's deed, and has tried to redeem himself; he works hard and well as a cop despite the stigma of being the son of a murderer. Although he used to live in

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, Vincent now lives in New York City. Vincent has a son called Joey La Marca (

). Joey is still in Long Beach, but he is a homeless junkie. Vincent last saw Joey 14 years ago, when Vincent walked out on his son and his son's mother, and went to live by himself. He has told his current girlfriend, Michelle (

), that he has no children. Then Vincent's son, Joey, is implicated in a drug-related killing out in Long Beach. Vincent is unwilling to help his son, and Michelle cannot understand why. Joey's girlfriend, Gina (

) is struggling to stay sober for the sake of her infant son, Angelo; Joey is the father of the child. Gina pleads with Vincent to try to save Joey. Gina later abandons the child, leaving the toddler with Vincent. Vincent's cop partner, Reg ( George Dzundza) is sympathetic to Vincent's situation, and is trying to help Vincent clear Joey of the drug-related killing. On the basis of a tip-off, Reg and another policeman are in Long Beach searching an abandoned and ruined casino where Joey is thought to sleep, to try to take Joey in for questioning. During the search, Reg is brutally shot and killed. The second cop assumes that Joey killed Reg, and is unaware that Reg was killed by the ruthless local drug enforcer, Spyder ( William Forsythe). Joey is now thought to be responsible for two murders, including killing a cop. A massive police search is launched to stop this "armed and dangerous cop-killer". It looks as if the police will probably shoot and kill Joey if they can locate him. Vincent decides he has to do whatever he can to save his estranged son, for the sake of his son, but also for the sake of his little grandson, so that his grandson can grow up with a mother and a father. Vincent decides he cannot stay "disappeared" from his son's and grandson's life, in the same way his own father disappeared from his life when he was a child. Vincent discovers proof that Spyder killed Reg. After a difficult search, Vincent finds Spyder, but is now confronted at gunpoint. When Joey arrives, he shoots Spyder dead in self-defense. Joey still does not trust Vincent and thinks that his father only wants to arrest him—cop first, father second. Eventually Vincent is able to persuade his son that he cares for him. When other police home in on them, Vincent uses his own body to block his son's body so that police cannot shoot Joey without first shooting him. Joey is taken into custody without violence and father and son exchange a small smile before he is taken away.

Cast

* Robert De Niro as Vincent LaMarca *

as Michelle *

as Joey LaMarca *

as Gina * William Forsythe as Spyder * George Dzundza as Reg Duffy *

Patti LuPone Patti Ann LuPone (born April 21, 1949) is an American actress and singer best known for her work in musical theater. She has won three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, two Grammy Awards, and was a 2006 inductee to the American Theater Hall of F ...

as Maggie LaMarca *

Anson Mount Anson Adams Mount IV (born February 25, 1973) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as Cullen Bohannon in the AMC western drama series '' Hell on Wheels'', as Jim Steele on the NBC series '' Conviction'' (2006), as the Marv ...

as Dave Simon *

John Doman John Doman (born January 9, 1945) is an American actor best known for playing Maryland State Police Superintendent, Deputy Police Commissioner and Major William Rawls on HBO series ''The Wire'' (2002–2008), Colonel Edward Galson on '' Oz'' (2 ...

as Henderson * Brian Tarantina as Snake * Drena De Niro as Vanessa Hansen *

Nestor Serrano Nestor Serrano (born November 5, 1955 in The Bronx, New York) is an American film and television actor. He is known for playing Navi Araz in the fourth season of '' 24''. He also appeared as Emilio Loera in the fourth season of the Cinemax se ...

as Rossi *

Michael P. Moran Michael Patrick Moran (February 8, 1944 – February 4, 2004) was an American actor and playwright. Life and career Moran was born in Yuba City, California, but his family moved frequently because his father was a United States Army officer. Wh ...

as Herb * Michael Della Femina as Angelo LaMarca (Vincent's father) * Dominick Angelo and Pasquale Enrico Cangro as Baby Angelo (Joey and Gina's son)

Production

Filming took place in early 2001. The story is primarily set in Long Beach, New York, a beachfront town on the south shore of Long Island, for which the municipal motto is "Civitas ad Mare",

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "City by the Sea". However, the on-location scenes in the film that supposedly show the town of Long Beach were in fact shot in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The film features many aspects of a town that appears to be partially ruined, including scenes of a shabby

boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of brid ...

and an abandoned casino/arcade building. There is a disclaimer in the credits at the end of the film which explicitly states that the film was not shot in Long Beach. Some other scenes in the film show

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

(including the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

; the shots were not edited out after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

Reception

''City by the Sea'' received mixed reviews from critics.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gave the film a 48% rating based on reviews from 144 critics, with an average rating of 5.8/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Notes

* "Mark of a murderer" by

Mike McAlary Michael James McAlary (December 15, 1957 – December 25, 1998) was an American journalist and columnist who worked at the ''New York Daily News'' for 12 years, beginning with the police beat. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for his columns ...

, '' Esquire'' magazine, 1997

References

External links

* * * * * {{Michael Caton-Jones 2002 films 2002 crime drama films 2002 independent films American crime drama films American independent films Crime films based on actual events Drama films based on actual events Films about dysfunctional families Films directed by Michael Caton-Jones Films scored by John Murphy (composer) Films set in New York (state) Films shot in New Jersey Films shot in New York (state) Films produced by Don Carmody Franchise Pictures films American neo-noir films Impact of the September 11 attacks on cinema Warner Bros. films Films produced by Elie Samaha Films about father–son relationships 2000s English-language films 2000s American films