Sea of Love (2007, HD DVD)

Sea of Love stars Al Pacino, one of the greatest actors of all time, in the role of a veteran homicide detective, Frank Keller, John Goodman who plays his partner, Sherman, and Ellen Barkin who plays a woman named Helen, who answers a personal ad.

Sea of Love is a suspenseful thriller that takes place in New York City and many of the scenes are shot at night which further adds to the film's allure.

In the first scene we see a brutish, crazed man brandishing a gun while he is sitting on top of a naked man who's laying face down in bed, and says to his victim, "Show me how you did it." You will have to watch the film to see what he's referring to. Then he kills him. The song, Sea of Love, plays in the background. It keeps repeating over and over.

The next door neighbor, a cranky old broad steps out of her apartment into the hallway and notices the door to her neighbor's apartment is open. After yelling, "Mr. Mackey" a few times, she pushes open the door when she gets no answer.
She discovers he's been shot and calls the police.

Enter Al Pacino (Detective Frank Keller) and another homicide detective who married Frank's ex-wife. The setting of the apartment in which the scene of the murder took place is visually stunning. The investigation begins.

Frank is very lonely and drinks too much. He calls his ex-wife, Denise, in the middle of the night who hangs up on him. Meanwhile, another murder has been committed with the same modus operandi. Frank and the detective who married Frank's ex-wife tells him to call at "decent hours" and not in the middle of the night, when they are riding up in the elevator to the apartment of victim number two. There they find a man lying face down on his bed, shot in the head and debate as to whether he's been dead 36 or 48 hours, saying, "It smells like 36."
"No, it smells like 48." Over the corpse, Frank initiates a personal conversation with the detective who married his ex-wife, and says, "We don't even have a beer anymore," then accuses him of snatching his wife away from him. The conversation is cut short when the detective peels off his latex gloves and says, "Hey, you didn't treat her right and she left."

Since the m.o. of this crime is the same as the first, the police believe that they have a serial killer on their hands and proceed accordingly. Then Frank comes up with an idea to solve the case by placing a personal ad in the paper, so that they can meet women over drinks and get their fingerprints off the glass.

One night when Frank and his police buddies are playing poker, they jokingly toss around a couple of uncouth verses for the personal ad, when Frank's father, played by the veteran actor William Hickey, who is sitting in a chair across the room with drink in hand says,

"I live alone within myself, like a hut within the woods; I keep my heart high upon the shelf, barren of other goods; I need another's arms to reach for it, and place it where it belongs. I need another's touch and smile, to fill my hut with songs."

It is a beautiful poem and they use it for the personal ad. Then stacks of responses come pouring in and Frank and his partner, Sherman, get busy setting up meetings with the women who've replied to the ad.

In a van, outside the restaurant designated for the meetings, Frank is being wired. Then he goes into the restaurant and lady number 1 shows up. Sherman, who is the waiter for the evening, takes their drink orders. The first woman is an attractive older lady, the second woman says, "You've got cops' eyes...my ex-husband was a cop...what did you say you were...a printer? If you're a printer, I've got a dick." She gets up and leaves and Frank says under his breath into the mike, "I didn't doubt it for a minute."

Enter Ellen Barkin as you've never seen her before looking sexy in a red leather jacket that matches her lipstick, long blonde hair, looking fantastic. I've never seen Ellen Barkin look better than in this movie. Helen is streetwise. There is nothing about her that suggests she is gullible or naive. She sits down across the table from Frank, confident and relaxed. After a few minutes she says, "You like this and I like that," referring to their differences. Then she snaps her fingers and says, "I believe in love at first sight. I believe in animal attraction, and I don't feel it with you." Frank says he's hell on wheels when you get to know him. He tells her to take a sip of her wine, which she refuses to do, then gets up and leaves, saying, "It's nothing personal."

Then a third murder occurs. Fast forward to a scene at a produce stand where Frank runs into, of all people, Helen. She asks, "You didn't write that poem did you?" He tells her his father wrote it to his mother some fifty years ago.
He tells Helen that what she said to him the other night, and the way she said it was "poetry in motion." It is clear by the expression on her face that she's changed her mind about Frank and says, "How about that happy hunting toast?"

They go to a very dark bar and have a drink. This is a great scene. He tells her he feels like a big cat in a small cage. She shares some information about her life. Helen is smiling and intrigued by Frank, and the attraction is mutual. The next scene is even better. She and Frank are in his apartment kissing passionately against the wall and the chemistry between them is electrifying. Watching this scene is like watching two ordinary people who lust for each other and have strong chemistry, rather than two actors in the scene of a movie. The scene is executed perfectly. She tells him to get into bed and goes into the bathroom. While she's in the bathroom he sees what looks like a pistol in her purse and totally freaks out, thinking that she's the shooter. He grabs his gun and when she comes out of the bathroom he grabs her and locks her in a closet. Screaming, she bangs on the door yelling, "Let me out." He takes the pistol out of her purse and it turns out to be a starter pistol. Then he lets her out and she is raging mad at him for doing this to her. He explains that he saw the pistol and got freaked out. He tells her to feel his heart pounding. Then she cools down and they pick-up where they left off, fall into bed, and make love.

The next morning she tells him "You're wired like no man I've ever known...but you're a good man." She is drinking a cup of coffee, then dresses and leaves.

After she leaves Frank empties the coffee cup and puts the cup in a bag for evidence, but then doesn't follow through to get her prints. He tells his partner, she's not the shooter, despite the fact that he doesn't know if she is, or isn't.

She discovers that he lied to her about being a printer and that he is a cop. Initially, she's put off by this, but gets
over it. Frank is crazy about Helen. As the relationship progresses there are a few bumps in the road which you can see for yourself if you watch the movie.

There's a twist toward the end of the film when Frank goes to Helen's apartment late one night, and sees the names of all three victims and their phone numbers on her refrigerator door. Frank is shocked, believing her to be the shooter. He leaves quickly and says, "Catch ya later."

After that, Helen shows up unexpectedly at Frank's apartment, walking down a long, dark hall in a tight dress and her red leather jacket, and says flatly, "Catch you later...are you giving me the brush off?"

Once inside, she puts a 45 rpm of Sea of Love on his stereo and they dance. Then he does something that offends her, before confronting her about what he's discovered. He feels deeply betrayed and she is caught totally off guard and hurt by what he is accusing her of. He tells her to get out. She leaves. He lays his gun on an end table. Then the doorbell rings. I'll stop here and leave it at that so as not to reveal the ending.

Sea of Love is a suspenseful movie with great acting, intriguing scenes and dialogue, set against the backdrop of New York City. The chemistry between Pacino and Barkin is hot, and the ending is a satisfying one.