66
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Chicago TribuneChicago TribuneWith a wealth of talent at his disposal, director Becker spends too much of the film's flashier currencies-criminality and sex-and draws too little on nuance and personality. Even so, the movie winds up in the black.
- 80Time Out LondonTime Out LondonEfficient enough as a thriller, but what makes this mandatory viewing is the return of Pacino. There are isolated scenes as good as anything he's done, and if the role is less demanding than Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon or Michael in The Godfather, his presence lifts the production in the way De Niro lifted Midnight Run.
- 80EmpireIan NathanEmpireIan NathanNever revealing too much, Becker keeps us intrigued to the end, whilst Pacino and Barkin unexpectedly sizzle.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSea of Love tells an ingeniously constructed story that depends for its suspense on the same question posed by Jagged Edge and Fatal Attraction: What happens when you fall in love with a person who may be quite prepared to murder you?
- 75TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineA thriller featuring a mysterious femme fatale, an involving plot, and some nice offbeat twists, Sea of Love owes a good deal to Hitchcock, and to such recent efforts as Fatal Attraction and Jagged Edge, though it can claim plenty of originality as well.
- 75Boston GlobeJay CarrBoston GlobeJay CarrAlthough the film is full of the sensory jolts common to this genre, it also has more humor than most, thanks to Richard Rice's tough, witty script. [15 Sep 1989, p.37]
- 70Washington PostHal HinsonWashington PostHal HinsonAll the actors fire off one another nicely. Goodman and Pacino may be the only cop duo in memory to generate anything like real enthusiasm.
- 70Washington PostWashington PostPrice and director Harold Becker build in enough jumps and scares and good red herrings to be satisfying -- there are a few especially heart pounding moments in which Keller's sense of helplessness in his own bedroom is palpable -- but a few logical holes may appear when you talk about it afterwards. Still, Sea of Love is leagues deeper than the average buddy movie.
- 60Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasSea of Love is a satisfactory end-of-summer diversion, the kind of film that works as long as you ask nothing of it beyond simple escape. It's a slick, knowing genre film, through and through, a New York cop suspense thriller that we've seen countless times before.
- 40The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbySea of Love is a lugubrious imitation of a second-rate television movie, over-produced and over-cast. Mr. Pacino tears into a role made out of rice paper, for messy results, while Miss Barkin does her level best to seem simultaneously sexy, homicidal and innocent, which is not easy.