| Overall Grade: |
A |
|
| Story: |
A |
|
|
| Acting: |
A |
|
|
| Direction: |
A |
|
|
| Visuals: |
A |
|
|
"Silver moons.A lifetime of Junes.Old Rock tunes."
by Blanche Rose (movies profile)
Aug 29, 2009
4
of
4 people found this review helpful
This is the lonely hearts column...
Where dozens of heartsick unhappy men place adds in the hopes that while blindly fishing around in a pond they will find the love of their life.
This is where New York's latest serial killer finds her victims, and after a drink and a dance, and an hour in bed, kills them with a shotgun to the tune of John Philip Baptiste's
"Sea of Love."
Partial to poetry, she prays on those unlucky enough to have a talent for making words rhyme.
Twenty years after joining the Manhattan Police Force, Detective Frank Keller (Al Pacino) is a soul not unlike the poets in the classifieds.
He's divorced. His best friend has married his ex wife, and they have since ceased to be friends, there instead being a sort of muted hostility between them (which one night erupts into a fist fight).
He also drinks too much, calls his ex wife at odd hours to tell her that he has an ulcer (an obvious lie) and is utterly alone with the exception of his father who has one foot in the grave.
It is then that this strange case of a date murderer falls on his lap, and he meets Queens Detective Sherman Touhey (The Spectacular John Goodman) who also has a dead guy shot in the head with a M.O identical to the killer Frank is investigating.
The two team up, become friends, and Sherman invites Frank to his daughter's wedding which is where Frank comes up with an idea to catch the crafty she-devil
"We put our OWN add in the paper." he says
The idea being that they will take the women who respond to a restaraunt, have a cop pose as the waiter, bag the glasses, then -as soon as they come up with a set of prints which match those left at the crime-scene- they'll know they've got their girl.
"I love it." Sherman says laughing "It's ***** but I love it."
The lieutant also laughs about it, (and offers to set Frank up with his divorced sister in law) but finally agrees to go along with it after victim number three (a man who swore on the eyes of his children, he didn't answer any of the adds) is found dead.
This gives the story the opportunity to lighten up a bit, and what happens next is truly funny.
We see Frank going on a series of disastrous dates with women who are either desperate or don't want to have anything to do with him.
The most cutting (and the coldest) is a woman named Helen Cruger (Ellen Barkin) who wears a bored expression as Frank talks.
"Wine OK miss?" Sherman says. (He's posing as the waiter).
She nods. But doesn't touch the glass.
Desperate to get her finger prints, Frank raises his own glass, suggesting they have a "Happy Hunting Toast."
Helen refuses, shaking her head.
"I believe in animal attraction. I believe in love at first sight. I believe in THIS." she snaps her fingers "And I just don't feel it with you."
She then walks out of the restaurant, leaving Frank bewildered.
The following night however, he runs into her at the store buying produce.
"How quickly we forget." She says.
"No I don't forget you." He says "You're miss animal attraction right? Love at first sight."
"Still want to go have that happy hunting toast?" She asks.
This is how the relationship begins.
A potentially dangerous one since Frank has no confirmation that she's NOT the killer.
And over the objections of Sherman (his now best friend) Frank spends the night with her.
But as the romance progresses, Helen begins to look more and more suspicious.
The plot may seem predictable (maybe even a little dreadful since the audience is almost certain Helen is the killer). However, the story has a surprise ending, and you'll never guess where all the suspense is going.
This is truly one of Pacino's best roles. He's terrific in it as is the classy Ellen Barkin.
John Goodman injects the movie with a lot of humor without which it wouldn't have been as good.
It's a terrific, surprising movie, worth the time it takes watch it. |
My Public Profile 
