Without Al Pacino to lend it credibility this dangerous (and all-too familiar) romance between the cop and the beautiful murder suspect might have been just another modern thriller, complete with routine doses of obsessive foreplay and glossy film noir visuals. But with the right actor in the right role and with some clever dialogue the film is able (at times) to rise above the curious banality of its title (and title song), and the sexism of its scenario. Ellen Barkin plays every frustrated cop's dream assignment: a nymphomaniac single mother, suspected of stalking lonely men through personal ads and leaving them dead (presumably) at the moment of sexual climax. Pacino is too good an actor for such a disposable, transparently male fantasy, but he's in good company with John Goodman, who gets plenty of mileage out of his standard jolly fat buddy role. But the throwaway revelation of the killer's true identity is anticlimactic, and the violent surprise ending is almost ruined by a totally bogus, happily-ever-after epilogue.
Review of Sea of Love
