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Sea of Love (1989)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
May 10th, 2008
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'Sea of Love' is a sexy thriller similar to Basic Instinct, and it predated it by a few years. The only real difference is that Basic Instinct is a lot steamier and more graphic, and the lead vixen, played by Sharon Stone, is much more straightforwardly nasty. 'Sea of Love' is a multi-layered mystery, even though the ending is sort of weak; it just comes out of nowhere to vindicate Helen (Ellen Barkin), the primary suspect in a series of murders being investigated by weary detective Frank Keller (Al Pacino). Keller has been on the force 20 years, still calls his ex-wife, now married to his colleague Gruber (Richard Jenkins). Keller is a good cop, his skills honed by experience; but he cannot manage any kind of personal relationship. He teams up with the good-natured Sherman Touley (John Goodman) and hatches a scheme to catch the killer, whose victims are all men from the personal columns. They have something else in common, too, the type of ad that they placed, but this is largely irrelevant. Keller and Touley make an ad of their own and meet probably dozens of lonely women at the same diner, one of them poses as the waiter, to take the wine glass and have it dusted for prints. Helen meets Frank, but leaves swiftly, without touching her wine. Frank bumps into her again and they start having an affair; he falls for her, even though she could be the person responsible for the string of homicides. The love scenes between Pacino and Barkin are smoking hot; they have an Adrian Lyne flavor to them, there is one playful encounter in a grocery store, where Barkin allows Pacino to slide his hand up her thigh (she is obviously not wearing panties), and it ends there, instead of incorporating food items or something extremely kinky. Barkin is beautiful, a sultry blonde bombshell who completely seduces Frank, as she could any man. She really doesn't keep any secrets from him; he, on the other hand, does not reveal his true occupation until he is forced to.
This is yet another great Pacino performance; he has that tired-looking cop role down pat, and, at the time, it marked a real triumph after the bloated disaster Revolution in 1985; a wonderful return to form. Barkin has the classiness, elegance, and mystique to match wits with the best femme fatales. Goodman is a delight; he and Pacino have great chemistry. The erotic nature of the movie is expressed clearly through the use of soft porn music (listen to what plays on the main menu of the DVD to see what I mean); the title hints at it, too, but comes from the name of the old 50s song that can be heard multiple times throughout, at least four times if I recall.
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