Sea Of Love Details

There's a real sexual charge to this tough mystery thriller, with New York cop Al Pacino and chief murder suspect Ellen Barkin conveying a highly plausible erotic tension. It's not that they can't keep their hands off each other — they can't! — but they can't keep their minds off each other, either. It's a rather lurid story about Manhattan men being killed after advertising in the lonely-hearts columns, with a screenplay by Richard Price that's as serrated as a dozen Jagged Edges. The film is effectively directed by Harold Becker, who gives it an air of realism that only adds to the suspense. The title record (playing at the scene of each murder) is a bit of an irrelevance, but is still a treat to listen to.

Effective urban thriller, though the emphasis is more on the romance than in discovering whodunnit.