Down the Shore (2011)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Touches You

Brilliant and touching

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I fully admit my tastes are different from the norm. How IMDb reviewers can rate this film at 5.8 while giving such junk as Snatch and all that horrible Tarantino crap (Django Unchained 8.5 ?????, Grindhouse 7.7 ????, Dusk to Dawn 7.3 ????, etc.) such high scores is amazing.This film is slow, but is very well acted, especially by Gandolfini, Janssen and Magaro. The story at first seems "pushed" but soon as the characters are developed you come to see these as real people with real issues (unlike the nonsense of most all of Tarantino's junk). Although slow, the plot moves along well and ends with a nice conclusion. Lastly, the cinematography develops the mood of the film and the dying (at least in winter) of the old Jersey shore perfectly.If you have to see multiple senseless killings with a 100+ decibel score, then skip this film, but if you want to see a well acted film about people, then I recommend Down the Shore.

Excellent. It is rare to see a film that is so unassuming and yet has the stuff that makes me want to be there- know more about it- want to see more- hear more. I know these people- Some of this story resonates like it happened in my life. It didn't have to be Gandolfini and Janssen- It could have been any of a hundred actors handling those parts. But seeing these great people on the screen really makes this movie even greater for me. I don't think I am steering you wrong to award this fine movie 8 of 10. I believe it is worth every point. And, yes, the writer doesn't tell you everything. Like so many other great movies a lot remains unsaid. I hope you enjoy it like I have.

I guess since his passing I've appreciated James Gandolfini more than before, I wasn't a Soprano guy but I really enjoyed him as Mayor of NYC in the remade Taking of Pelham 123. That's why I watched this obscure little flick. He plays the manager of a tiny amusement park in one of the strangest beach areas you've ever seen. More than anything I'm fascinated by the shooting location, undoubtedly on the ocean but with city views out in the distance (in fact Keansburg NJ is across Raritan Bay from Perth Amboy and within view of lower Manhattan). Since the story occurs in the winter, the physical back drop is even more depressed by the season. James is affected by the death of his sister, who knowing she had cancer goes to France, marries a man, and leaves him one half of the house she shared with James. Does she do this because she knows he will be good for James? Your guess is as good as mine. I was drawn partially into this movie, enough to watch it through but not enough to highly recommend it for anything but die-hard JG fans. P.S. I have since visited Keansburg and Kiddie Land and it looks just like it does on the screen.

DOWN THE SHORE is one of those little sensitive films that seems like it is lightweight until the secrets of the story begin to leak. It is a film about thwarted human relations that have a core of ill-define tragic misconceptions. It is well written (by Sandra Jennings), well directed (by Harold Guskin) and happens to provide a showcase for some inordinately gifted actors who usually are not given the attention they deserve.The film opens in Paris where a handsome Jacques (the very impressive Italian actor Edoardo Costa) is cranking a carousel for children in a little park. Observing him is a winsome Susan (Maria Dizzia) who speaks no French but in a rare moment of instant chemical gaze we can see that she and Jacques connect. Susan hires Jacques to be her guide while she is in Paris - and then we see them no more. The scene changes to 3 months later when Jacques comes to Susan's home in New Jersey, meets her brother Bailey (a brilliant role for James Gandolfini), informs Bailey that Susan is dead, and gives Bailey a letter and Susan's ashes and informs Bailey that he and Susan were married in France: the letter confirms that Jacques is to own half of Susan's house which she shared with Bailey and Jacques suggests he and Bailey be partners. Bailey runs a small carnival park on the Jersey shore and Jacques is able to help him bring life back into the children's rides.The other part of the story concerns Mary (Famke Janssen in excellent form) who is Bailey's childhood sweetheart but now married to Bailey's best friend, the covertly abusive crack addict Wiley (Joe Pope) who happens to own the little carnival park where Bailey works. Some talk between the two men suggests that their fathers were bad men but Wiley inherited his father's wealth and park and married Mary with whom he had a mentally challenged son Martin (John Magaro) while Bailey has remained single living with his sister Susan. The secrets of why Wiley is addicted to crack and physically abuses Mary while Bailey seems to do nothing about the woman he still loves is brought into focus by the wise Jacques, the one person who seems to be adjusted and happy despite his wife's recent death from cancer. In talks with both Bailey and Wiley, Jacques uncovers the horrid secrets that have bruised everyone's lives and what those secrets mean, and how the story works out must be withheld until the viewer experiences this film.A stronger cast could not be imagined for this well written, well-directed film. The degree of identification with absolutely every character in the film is truly remarkable. This is a tale of the maladaptation to secrets of the past. And one of the many beauties of the film is the manner in which much is left unresolved or unsaid at the end. Grady Harp