Resting in the annals of highly prolific suspense thrillers like "Jagged Edge" and "Fatal Attraction", "Sea of Love" has the right formula of bone chilling suspicions of getting romantically linked with someone who could potentially kill you. Here we have Al Pacino who looked more grizzled than his previous films (he's a method actor) but more in his game as homicide detective Frank Keller who's challenging himself to a very ugly murder mystery. The victim is lonely single man and the possible perpetrator might be a female.
Searching for clues to ascertain possible suspects, Keller runs into another detective from Queens Sherman Touhey (John Goodman) who's also solving a very similar case. What's ironic is that the victims were both males took up rhyming ads in singles magazines looking for a relationship. Noticing a pattern, Keller and Touhey decide to falsely place ads that rhyme of their own and date all the women who respond to them. That way they can trace their fingerprints on the wine glasses and compare them to the crime scene.
In one of the more innovative measures to ascertain the culprit, Keller arranged these one in an assembly line format with each lonely heart eating out with Keller while Touhey serving as their waiter. This is where things start to get more compelling where one of the women named Helen Cruger (Ellen Barkin) has her turn to date Keller and suddenly he becomes attracted to both her beauty, but she plays hard to get. Keller eventually steps out of line professionally and into more dangerous territory as he meets up with her again at a market where she works at a shoe store. They seem on better acquainted with each other to te point where they become romantically attracted to one another.
But the romantic angle is not a true one, but a scheme to find out if Helen is in fact the murderer. There are a myriad of evidence that's proven accurate and many more that's convincing. Taken a few pages of Glenn Close's attraction to Jeff Bridges' character from "Jagged Edge", Keller seems more determined to rather sacrifice his life for this potential suspect as Helen seems to have a metaphoric love spell on him and the worst part is he doesn't seem to care. This all seems to be proven effectively at least until near the end where the solution just decides to throw an awkward curve ball at you. The real meal ticket here is amazing chemistry between Pacino and Barkin and is Barkin who truly seems to out amazingly outshines a legend like Pacino and that's no easy task. There's no denying that Barkin is very dedicated to her craft. Her performance in 1987's "The Big Easy" was golden. Here her energy lights up the room every time she stalks at her prey and her embracing towards Pacino is quite bone-chilling.
For Al Pacino, this was a bit a reminder of all the grittier roles he once played back in the 1970's long before he slipped into more Oscar calibre roles and more lighter material (sans Scarface). As Frank Keller, he's focused, complex, resourceful and believable. John Goodman who's more known for being a comedic actor plays a more straight-laced character here as he becomes concerned over the potential dangers his friend is putting himself on by dating this woman who might be a killer.
Like I said this movie works on so many levels, but the red herring comes right near the end. I really don't like it when a randomized character comes in out of nowhere and turns out to be the killer. I can get twists but I hate the feeling of being shortchanged and this is where the film loses points. We as mystery lovers want to participate in solving these cases, that's part of the fun. Here director Harold Becker drains it out at the last minute. I was mesmerized by the characters and the elements that with the enjoyment of "Sea of Love", but in the end I felt kind of letdown with a good case that ended too soon and just ran out of ideas making it feel too rushed.
Searching for clues to ascertain possible suspects, Keller runs into another detective from Queens Sherman Touhey (John Goodman) who's also solving a very similar case. What's ironic is that the victims were both males took up rhyming ads in singles magazines looking for a relationship. Noticing a pattern, Keller and Touhey decide to falsely place ads that rhyme of their own and date all the women who respond to them. That way they can trace their fingerprints on the wine glasses and compare them to the crime scene.
In one of the more innovative measures to ascertain the culprit, Keller arranged these one in an assembly line format with each lonely heart eating out with Keller while Touhey serving as their waiter. This is where things start to get more compelling where one of the women named Helen Cruger (Ellen Barkin) has her turn to date Keller and suddenly he becomes attracted to both her beauty, but she plays hard to get. Keller eventually steps out of line professionally and into more dangerous territory as he meets up with her again at a market where she works at a shoe store. They seem on better acquainted with each other to te point where they become romantically attracted to one another.
But the romantic angle is not a true one, but a scheme to find out if Helen is in fact the murderer. There are a myriad of evidence that's proven accurate and many more that's convincing. Taken a few pages of Glenn Close's attraction to Jeff Bridges' character from "Jagged Edge", Keller seems more determined to rather sacrifice his life for this potential suspect as Helen seems to have a metaphoric love spell on him and the worst part is he doesn't seem to care. This all seems to be proven effectively at least until near the end where the solution just decides to throw an awkward curve ball at you. The real meal ticket here is amazing chemistry between Pacino and Barkin and is Barkin who truly seems to out amazingly outshines a legend like Pacino and that's no easy task. There's no denying that Barkin is very dedicated to her craft. Her performance in 1987's "The Big Easy" was golden. Here her energy lights up the room every time she stalks at her prey and her embracing towards Pacino is quite bone-chilling.
For Al Pacino, this was a bit a reminder of all the grittier roles he once played back in the 1970's long before he slipped into more Oscar calibre roles and more lighter material (sans Scarface). As Frank Keller, he's focused, complex, resourceful and believable. John Goodman who's more known for being a comedic actor plays a more straight-laced character here as he becomes concerned over the potential dangers his friend is putting himself on by dating this woman who might be a killer.
Like I said this movie works on so many levels, but the red herring comes right near the end. I really don't like it when a randomized character comes in out of nowhere and turns out to be the killer. I can get twists but I hate the feeling of being shortchanged and this is where the film loses points. We as mystery lovers want to participate in solving these cases, that's part of the fun. Here director Harold Becker drains it out at the last minute. I was mesmerized by the characters and the elements that with the enjoyment of "Sea of Love", but in the end I felt kind of letdown with a good case that ended too soon and just ran out of ideas making it feel too rushed.