City By the Sea

True story: former cop Vincent La Marca's father was executed for the kidnapping, ransom and murder of a baby in the 1950s; La Marca later grew up to join the police force, but after he retired his own estranged son was arrested and convicted of a ruthless premeditated murder. In the film version, Robert De Niro plays La Marca as a Manhattan homicide detective whose most recent investigation leads him to his own drug-addled son (James Franco), who accidentally killed a drug dealer in a brawl. A girlfriend (Frances McDormand) for La Marca and a grandchild have been added to beef up the plot, along with the murder of another cop by the drug dealer's boss, out to avenge himself on Franco. Usually such Hollywood embellishments are transparent and trite, but writer Ken Hixon (Inventing the Abbotts) and director Michael Caton-Jones (Rob Roy, This Boy's Life) have made their fictionalized version of La Marca's story so compelling and somberly, realistically gritty that it's surprisingly easy to forgive the film's fabrications. Of course, very strong performances by De Niro, Franco (TNT's James Dean) and McDormand don't hurt either. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by screenwriter Ken Hixon and producer Matthew Baer, the nine-minute featurette “Six Words About Filmmaking with Michael Caton-Jones” (topics include interaction, shooting and editing), and a trailer. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a decent character-driven thriller.] (R. Blackwelder)