Very average cop drama with DeNiro playing a variation on a theme he's done a million times before. Based on a true story, evidently, but the character actors here make it seem very rote Hollywood. Frances McDormand is decent, as usual, as the older girlfriend. This could have been a plot from NYPD Blue. Watch it, but don't expect to be wowed.

Film is set in Long Beach, NY that long time ago used to be a place where people would meet, great and have fun. These days, place is deserted and destitute full of young people drowning in drugs and alcohol. DeNiro plays a police detective with a past. Decades ago, he left Long Beach for NYC in attempt to get a new start at life. In the process, he has divorced his wife and abandoned their son. He lives in self imposed exile on carefully maintained daily routine that seems to help him keeping his sanity. But that does not last too long as his long estranged son gets in trouble with the law after he stabs to death a local drug dealer. Before long, detective realizes that his love for his son takes presedence over everything else in his life until then: his job, friendship, career and love. It is a touching story about the power of fatherly love and effort of one generation to break the circle of unfortunate life choices of generations before and after. DeNiro gives a fine performance.

CITY BY THE SEA is an entertaining "gritty" cop film in the vein of television shows such as HOMICIDE or NYPD BLUE. It's a good film that I recommend to fans of the genre but with its credentials it should have been great. The plot is certainly compelling enough and is based on the true story of a NYC police lieutenant who had the misfortune to be both the son and father of a murderer. Robert De Niro expertly plays the detective, Vince, and has great support from Frances McDormand as his girlfriend, Broadway great Patti Lupone in the role of his bitter ex wife and up and coming young hunk James Franco playing Vince's son Richie, a former high school football star turned pathetic junkie. Much of the film is set at a seedy, mostly abandoned, seaside resort. My IMDB research tells me that though the film is set in Long Beach, LI the movie was actually filmed in Asbury Park, NJ and efforts were made to make that beach town look even more run down than it was at the time and the work paid off in atmosphere and a real sense of geographic place. Several rich themes are prominent in the storyline the most obvious being abandonment issues between fathers and sons. Yet for all the money, talent and intelligent planning put in to this film the special spark that raises a movie to classic status is missing.

Robert DeNiro turns in a fine performance as a dedicated policemen and father who's trying to saving his son from a crime he didn't commit. His job is made all the harder by his estranged relationship with his son, who he hasn't seen in many years. The movie takes place against the backdrop of the once chic city of Long Beach, New York, once a little paradise by the sea, but has since seen better days. Now miles of abandoned old hotels, casinos, and other buildings line the shores, seemingly frequented these days only by junkies, drug dealers, and other outcasts of society, including DiNero's son. DeNiro must battle old prejudices and demons, such as his own father's notorious criminal past, his failed relationship with his son, and a police dept. that has already concluded his son is guilty and is going to bring him in dead or alive. James Franco as DeNiro's junkie son and Frances McDormand also turn in fine performances, although McDormand doesn't get a whole lot of on screen time.

One thing is I usually notice movie scores, since there are many movie composers whose music I like, such as the great Jerry Goldsmith (who recently passed away, but his music will live on), but this movie kept me absorbed enough so that I don't even remember the music. Overall this is a good movie and worth seeing, especially if you're a DeNiro fan.

City by the Sea is a great movie! I enjoyed the irony of it. A father, played by Robert DeNiro, is trying to convince his son to turn himself in, while at the same time prove he's innocent! Corruption and Betrayal run high! There are many great actors in this film and it is produced well. I don't understand why more people were not talking about this excellent show when it came out in theaters, I guess everyone has an opinion.