Paul Clinton is a bad man. He is responsible for my suffering through what has got to be the dullest murder mystery/cop drama ever conceived by Hollywood. After reading a particularly glowing review of this movie by Paul, I decided to give City by the Sea a chance. I'm strongly convinced that Paul decided to inflict the same suffering on others that he had to endure during this movie and wrote an incestuously loving review of the movie to further that end.

Directer Michael Caton-Jones (Rob Roy, The Jackal) paints a bland tapestry in which unlikable characters interact blandly in this TV-movie world. The story (for what it's worth) breaks down thusly: Vincent Lamarca (De Niro), whose father was executed for a 1950s kidnapping and murder of a child, grew up living in the shadow of his father's guilt to become a police officer. Leaving an indelible mark on LaMarca, his father's crime continues to haunt him at work and at home. His marriage straining, a one-time instance of marital violence has Vincent separated from his wife and his son Joseph. Vincent can see his son only during court-ordered supervised visits, leaving him feeling like the criminal his father was. Not wanting his son to remember him this way, he eventually stops visiting him, leaving Joseph without a father just as he himself was, and eeks out a bland yet regimented new life in Manhattan. Years later his routine existence is disrupted when a now grown-up Joseph (Franco) ends up on the run wanted for murder. Vincent is in a race against time to find his son and uncover the truth before his vengeance-ready cop friends get to Joseph first... blah blah blah. Seen this before. Yeah, me too, how about that. The themes of the story, in which the sins of the father return to unravel his comfortable world are ones explored with more care in other films.

Don't get me wrong, the performances were fine, it's just that the characters in this film are so dull and uninteresting no amount of good acting could make them leap off the screen in an engaging manner. De Niro fits nicely in his usual cop template role, but it is James Franco who stands out, attempting to raise the quality of this movie to something more than the usual "Cop chases friend/relative on the run for a murder he/she may or may not have committed" formula. Yes I know that a lot of what we see in film these days is just a re-packaging of older story ideas that have been done a thousand times and I'm okay with that if the particular re-hashing is done with more flair than something I'd see on USA or TNT. Sure the acting was good. You know what? Who cares. If the story isn't interesting or the characters appealing, that 1/3 of the equation still adds up to nothing more than a numb butt and $5 from my wallet (thank god for matinees) I'm never seeing again.

RATING: 2/5 Stars

- Andrew Parmet