Rating of
2/4
"City By The Sea" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 05/19/12
Long Island detective Robert DeNiro relives his past when his estranged son becomes a murder suspect. An above par cast bolsters an otherwise run of the mill cop thriller cum family drama that fails to deliver on both counts. The drama side of things is far too soapy, with McDormand having little to do except make two dimensional moralisations and the thriller is superficial and contains some real flaws in logic. The cast keeps it watchable however; Franco is suitably downtrodden as the junkie son, but seeing a mulleted, pot-bellied and jumper clad DeNiro deliver a dewy-eyed, cliche riddled speech about second chances is quite embarrassing considering the power and intensity we all know he's capable of. Add to this uninspired direction and the result is far too cliched and simplistic to be taken seriously.
