‘Two If By Sea’ Safe, Predictable Film
Sandra Bullock allows herself a little more edge than usual in “Two If by Sea,” and Denis Leary allows himself a little more heart. This mutual stretching of personas is what works best in the new romantic comedy about a couple of blue-collar thieves.
At first, they tempt us with the possibility that they might be the Ralph and Alice Kramden of the ‘90s. There’s something almost exhilarating as they begin the film by bickering in a car, virtually oblivious to the fact they’re the object of a police pursuit. They’re hauling a Matisse they just stole to a larcenous buyer on an upper-crust New England coastal island.
Leary’s Frank is not a master criminal. He’s a small-time loser who doesn’t even notice that the reason he’s not in jail yet is Bullock’s quick-thinking ability to improvise escapes.
“Two If by Sea” might have been more fun if they’d stayed with the breezy thievery. This couple might have blossomed into the ‘90s downmarket equivalent of all those sophisticated jewel thieves crawling across the Riviera like army ants in dinner jackets from the ‘30s to the ‘50s. But the movie goes soft and slack and is unable to conceal the fact that it essentially is a factory product - safe, cliche-ridden, predictable.
The surprise is that Leary has been a lot less demanding on himself here than he has in the TV material he has written for himself. His tough softie from Boston soon begins sounding like a reject from the work table of George V. Higgins - and his Boston underworld connections are embarrassing stereotypes of retrograde dummies who suggest discarded sketches for the enemies of Eddie Coyle.
It comes as no surprise that the caricatures are extended along ethnic lines. Bullock’s Jewish woman is smart; Leary and his Irish and Italian pals are dumb. Too bad, because Mike Starr, Michael Badalucco and Lenny Clarke could, one suspects, have gone to town with better writing.
Bullock comes off best because her complaining seems so valid. The film’s fundamental credibility problem is why a woman as bright as the one Bullock plays wouldn’t have bounced Leary’s knucklehead years ago. She’s not just sweet, but gutsy, even when forced to play some labored love scenes against the film’s smoothie.
Played by Stephen Dillane, he coolly occupies the beach house adjoining the mansion they have crashed in order to keep low profiles while waiting for the buyer to show up, and he does things like take Bullock horseback riding on the beach to show Leary up and win her over.
The criminal activity - and the FBI and state police response is Keystone Kops stuff, hectic but lame and lifeless. The Rhode Island coastal setting (Nova Scotia, actually) is a plus, but Leary seems not to have been aware that the strengths of his script were the character detailing and chemistry of his heartfelt dimwit and Bullock’s feisty but clever and emotionally generous true-blue type.
It’s nice to see Bullock edge away from the prospect of entrapment in nice-girl roles, and Leary proves he’s capable of projecting appealing vulnerability despite the self-imposed limits of his character.
The problem with “Two If by Sea” is that Leary the actor didn’t push Leary the writer hard enough.
xxxx “Two If By Sea” Location: Newport, East Sprague and Showboat cinemas. Credits: Directed by Bill Bennett; starring Sandra Bullock, Denis Leary, Stephen Dillane, Yaphet Kotto and Mike Starr Running time: 1:35 Rating: R