Older Reviews

CITY BY THE SEA (2002)

Robert De Niro plays a veteran NYC cop who, having overcome the stigma of being the son of an executed killer, has forged a long and distinguished career on the force. Intensely committed to his work, he now finds himself investigating his own homeless and drug-addicted son (James Franco) for the killing of his partner. The father has long been estranged from the boy since walking out on his family years earlier, and now he must choose whether to be a cop or a father. De Niro, older, heavier and slower in late middle age, still commands the screen. But the star of the show is Franco, whose lined and tortured face makes us feel every ounce of his pain and dispair as he races from one crisis to another, digging himself into an ever-deeper hole.