ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Predrag Sea of Love is directed by Harold Becker and written by Richard Price. It stars Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, John Goodman, Michael Rooker and William Hickey. Music is by Trevor Jones and Ronnie Taylor is the cinematographer. Plot has Pacino as New York Police Detective Frank Keller, a borderline alcoholic and lonely after his wife left him for one of his colleagues. Tracking a serial killer of men, an investigation set-up leads him to date a number of women with the idea of obtaining forensic evidence off of the wine glasses. One of these women is sultry blonde, Helen Cruger (Barkin), who Frank starts to have a passionate relationship with...The erotic thriller is a tough premise to get right on film, so many elements have to fall in to place for the film to win over critics and film goers alike. Chemistry of lead cast members, a gripping plot, plausible outcome, and so on. Too many over the years have failed miserably at it, resorting to either gratuitous tactics or simple star casting to entice the paying public in to the theater. Sea of Love is not a complete success, but it's certainly one of the best of its type. Were it not for a weak murder motive that's not fully explored, resulting in something of an unsatisfying finale, we would probably be talking about Sea of Love being the template movie for the erotic thriller.This movie of the same name, made 30 years later, evidently uses "Sea of Love," an evergreen rock and roll hit, as a theme. The song was written by New Orleans native John Phillip Baptiste, AKA Phil Phillips, who had a hit with it on its first release in 1959. John Goodman brings a lot to this movie: he ably supports the stars, when they've got their clothes on, playing Pacino's new cop partner Sherman Touhey. And when the Missouri-born Goodman delivers an "acapella" version of "Sea of Love," in that New Orleans accent he's entitled to use, well, he just stops the show. This movie has great New York ambiance, a good plot, good acting, a good sound track, Ellen Barkin at her most gorgeous, hot sex scenes, and touches of humor. It stands up to repeated viewings, and like Mr. Dangerfield, it deserves some respect.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.

sol- Along similar lines to 'Basic Instinct', this earlier crime drama involves a detective who enters into a sexual relationship with a woman who may or may not be a serial killer responsible for murdering a string of lonely men who have placed ads in the personals section. Where 'Sea of Love' differs from 'Basic Instinct' though is that it is not first and foremost a thriller. Lead actor Al Pacino has a well written character: lonely, full of anxiety and bitter over his wife leaving him for a fellow detective, and an interesting dynamic arises as a result. Pacino is not just pretending to be lonely and desperate when he goes undercover and places an ad to entice the murderess - he really, truly is. Ellen Barkin gets nicely well-rounded character too. Yes, she could be a killer and certain clues certainly point that way, but she also seems just as fragile as a lonely single mother, torn between doing the best for her daughter and securing her own happiness. With so much attention dedicated to the characters, the film admittedly missteps sometimes when in thriller mode. The twist, while clever, comes off as rather randomly written. The film also has a hard time maintaining suspense as Pacino becomes increasing convinced that Barkin is not the killer. That said, 'Sea of Love' is still engaging right up to its final frame. All concerned are good in form, with nice, understated supporting turns from Richard Jenkins and John Goodman. The latter in particular offers a decent dose of comic relief, which in turn prevents the film from getting bogged down in its gritty subject matter.

chaos-rampant A man who is starting to feel the pangs of lonely life, late at night he can't stop himself from phoning to an ex-wife that walked out on him. A series of crimes around the city where men turn up dead, lonely men seeking women late at night. He investigates, by posing as one of them, until he meets her.The middle portion revolves around these two selves in him trying to decide on the narrative; the lonely guy who's finally found her versus the cop whose job is to suspect her, even if that means she's the killer that he has to bring in. He settles for the latter, until a horrible version of himself is spat out by the story in the end, a man broken after his wife walked out on him. He gets to wrestle this uglier side of himself and come out on the other end for her purged of demons.That's all fine but it labors itself by trying to be one of those "character studies" that Methodist actors seem to gravitate to, Pacino here. A lot of them were being made in the 70s but they carried on, minus the young passion. So a lot of protracted scenes between characters, the thought is that just by seeing them together in scenes, we get "life". We don't of course, we get scenes. It's all a bit like Pacino's acting; aimless lumbering with the occasional bug-eyed frisson, but never amounts to more than pacing through motions. There are a few moments that suggest deeper undercurrents - the slumped look on the middle-aged blonde's face as she walks out the restaurant with a defeated soul - how Elen eerily manifests out of a dark hallway - and my favorite moment, the poem his father recites about someone who is living alone in the woods. It's so good, the poem and timing of delivery, it surpasses the whole film.Noir Meter: 1/4

merrywater I remember watching this on TV back in the early 90s. It was the first film I saw starring Al Pacino, and I must say I found him likable here.Anyhow, the plot is real good with the exception that the killer - who isn't revealed until the end - didn't have to appear at all earlier in the story, but does, in a minor role.Supporting cast very well chosen.Good directing, even interesting music, for being made in the 80s.There's one thing that bothers me, and this isn't on the account of Sea of Love, but rather another movie: Burn After Reading. I believe that the Coen bros did borrow quite a bit from this picture. Not only Richard Jenkins, who plays the Hardbodies Manager in BAR, but also the dating feature, which is rather crucial to the BAR story, and the peculiar sequence when Pacino discovers Barkin's gun in her bag. He kind of freaks out and starts jumping about, very neurotically. Clooney almost copied this sequence in BAR after realizing that he has shot a guy (Pitt).