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Actors: Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, John Goodman, Michael Rooker, Richard Jenkins
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Sea of Love |
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New York City detective Frank Keller (Pacino) is a burned-out case. He's put 20 years in, is eligible to retire, but keeps working (and drinking), partly because he can't get over his wife dumping him for a colleague. Keller takes on the case of a serial killer who locates the male victims through the lonely hearts columns in New York papers, has sex with them, and kills them. While on the case, he falls for sexy Helen (Barkin), but gradually realizes she may be the primary suspect. Goodman provides welcome comic relief as Keller's partner, Det. Sherman, and then-unknown Samuel L. Jackson turns up as a "Black guy" in several early scenes. This is a solid but not spectacular 1989 thriller which takes its name from the old Twilights hit, which Keller finds on the turntable in several victims' apartments.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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Based on a screenplay directly written for the screen by Richard Price, SEA OF LOVE is a movie directed by Harold Becker in 1989.
A serial killer chooses his victims among the men who put ads in the lonely hearts column of the NYC newspapers. Detectives Pacino and Goodman decide to place themselves an ad, hoping to find the killer they believe to be a woman. Pacino falls in love with Barkin, one of the women who's answered. But Barkin could be the killer.
--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Sea of Love |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 15%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 35%
How difficult to spot villain?
- Moderately Challenging
Time/Era of Movie:
- 1980's-1999
Murder Mystery?
Yes
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 80%
- 90%
Misc. Plotlets
- victim dies just after sex
Special suspect?
- lover
Kind of mystery?
- police procedural
Romance
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- police/lawman
Age:
- 40's-50's
Eccentric:
Yes
- emotionally unstable
Hair color?
- brunette (Black)
Hair style
- short/standard wavy (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Unclothed?
- Chest
Events of movie makes character more...
- irritated
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- druggie/wino disease
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- blonde
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn, straight
Body type
- ample bosom & buttocks (woman)
Unclothed?
- buttocks and chest
How much in movie?
- 80%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric:
Yes
- obsessed
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 20%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
City?
Yes
City:
- New York
- dangerous
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately messy visuals of dead
Movie makes you feel...
- challenged
How many deaths in film?
- 3-4
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- seeing breasts
- seeing nude female butt
- sex with icepick
- sex under blankets
Kind of violence:
- hand to hand
- guns
Unusual forms of death
- dropped from large heights
- perforation--bullets
Any profanity?
- Some foul language
- A lot of foul language
If Soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE...
- Classic/oldies rock
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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