Pacino looks a little beat here. He's not the brooding young kingpin of The Godfather Part II or the idealistic officer of Serpico. But it's perfectly okay because his age and somewhat reduced physical presence fit the role. He's a disillusioned, divorced, lonely cop who gets bagged up and calls people at three in the morning. He gets involved more or less by accident with Ellen Barkin, who may or may not be a serial killer and a "nutcase." Barken is well cast too. There's something vaguely predatory about her slitted eyes and lips, and there's an animal quality to her first sexual encounter with Pacino. She smooches him up voraciously in his darkened apartment then tears herself away to stalk back and forth in her tiny skirt muttering hoarse ululations before jumping his bones and almost killing him.
The support is equally good John Goodman is the soul of cheerful, friendly understanding, just as he was before revealing his slightly berserk side in "Barton Fink." His smile, his hand gestures, are so practiced and effective. (Alas he's required to do one of those stupid male strip-tease dances like Gene Hackman's in "Scarecrow" and Michael Ontkean's in "Slap Shot." Are they supposed to be entertaining? Amusing? What.) I always enjoy Bill Hickey too, here as Pacino's father. There was just something about Hickey that made his every performance memorable. Too bad he didn't spend more time on screen during his career. Rooker, as the murderer, is typecast but gets the job done.
The direction is competent, but the writing, by Richard Price, is more than that. It's really pretty good. Not just in the dramatic scenes but in the interpolated comic interludes as well. Pacino is pitching woo to a beautiful woman who apologizes for being older than he is. Pacino's reply: "Are you kidding? You're twice as good looking as three quarters of the women I know who are half your age.... Did that come out right?" What's also admirable about the script is that it focuses about equally on this developing but disturbing romance and the crime plot. Many of the scenes are shot at night and they don't make easy use of New York locations. Pacino and Barkin don't throw themselves into an embrace in front of the fountain at Lincoln Center.
Nobody drives across the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, nobody drives, so there are no car chases ending in collosal crashes on the FDR, which is fine with me.
It's still a genre movie, not very demanding of the audience, but it's quite well done. I'm not fond of "Sea of Love" the song, or any of 50s rock, but Pacino and the others would be. There's nothing much else in the way of a score, but I must mention the scene in which Pacino takes Barkin to a fancy restaurant to propose to her. The waiter takes forever to bring a menu. Meanwhile Pacino is nervously belting down drinks (the payoff comes later) and the most hideous strolling violinist in the world keep playing absolutely lousy renditions of "Strangers in the Night" and something that Bach might have written during a hallucination. Just terrible. My twelve-year-old kid would have been more often on key. This guy is lost on the Kreisler Highway.
Worth seeing.
The support is equally good John Goodman is the soul of cheerful, friendly understanding, just as he was before revealing his slightly berserk side in "Barton Fink." His smile, his hand gestures, are so practiced and effective. (Alas he's required to do one of those stupid male strip-tease dances like Gene Hackman's in "Scarecrow" and Michael Ontkean's in "Slap Shot." Are they supposed to be entertaining? Amusing? What.) I always enjoy Bill Hickey too, here as Pacino's father. There was just something about Hickey that made his every performance memorable. Too bad he didn't spend more time on screen during his career. Rooker, as the murderer, is typecast but gets the job done.
The direction is competent, but the writing, by Richard Price, is more than that. It's really pretty good. Not just in the dramatic scenes but in the interpolated comic interludes as well. Pacino is pitching woo to a beautiful woman who apologizes for being older than he is. Pacino's reply: "Are you kidding? You're twice as good looking as three quarters of the women I know who are half your age.... Did that come out right?" What's also admirable about the script is that it focuses about equally on this developing but disturbing romance and the crime plot. Many of the scenes are shot at night and they don't make easy use of New York locations. Pacino and Barkin don't throw themselves into an embrace in front of the fountain at Lincoln Center.
Nobody drives across the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, nobody drives, so there are no car chases ending in collosal crashes on the FDR, which is fine with me.
It's still a genre movie, not very demanding of the audience, but it's quite well done. I'm not fond of "Sea of Love" the song, or any of 50s rock, but Pacino and the others would be. There's nothing much else in the way of a score, but I must mention the scene in which Pacino takes Barkin to a fancy restaurant to propose to her. The waiter takes forever to bring a menu. Meanwhile Pacino is nervously belting down drinks (the payoff comes later) and the most hideous strolling violinist in the world keep playing absolutely lousy renditions of "Strangers in the Night" and something that Bach might have written during a hallucination. Just terrible. My twelve-year-old kid would have been more often on key. This guy is lost on the Kreisler Highway.
Worth seeing.