Synopsis
Seen-it-all New York detective Frank Keller is unsettled - he has done twenty years on the force and could retire, and he hasn't come to terms with his wife leaving him for a colleague. Joining up with an officer from another part of town to investigate a series of murders linked by the lonely hearts columns he finds he is getting seriously and possibly dangerously involved with Helen, one of the main suspects.
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Cast
- Al PacinoFrank Keller
- Ellen BarkinHelen Cruger
- John GoodmanSherman
- Michael RookerTerry
- William HickeyFrank Keller Sr.
- Richard JenkinsGruber
- Paul CalderonSerafino
- Gene CanfieldStruk
- Larry JoshuaDargan
- John SpencerLieutenant
Recommendations
- 88
Chicago Tribune
With 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. - 80
Time Out London
Efficient 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. - 80
Empire
Never revealing too much, Becker keeps us intrigued to the end, whilst Pacino and Barkin unexpectedly sizzle. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
Sea 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? - 75
TV Guide Magazine
A 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. - 75
Boston Globe
Although 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] - 70
Washington Post
All the actors fire off one another nicely. Goodman and Pacino may be the only cop duo in memory to generate anything like real enthusiasm. - 70
Washington Post
Price 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.
