Down the Shore

Da shore dey talkin’ about is da Joisey Shoah. Bailey (James Gandolfini) runs an almost-defunct small amusement park near the ocean. (This was actually filmed in 2008, and the park was later nearly wiped out by Hurricane Sandy.) His beloved sister has died from cancer in Paris, and the first he hears of it is the arrival of a Frenchman who married her over there. He has inherited half of Bailey’s house. Meanwhile, Bailey’s best friend, Wiley, who married Bailey’s girlfriend years ago, is slowly coming apart from drugs and worry about his marriage. They have a teenage son who is emotionally or socially retarded, behaving like a four-year-old. There is a big secret in their past. It all proceeds pretty slowly and comes to no sort of resolution. Other than the sad pleasure of seeing a pro like Gandolfini take over the part, there is little worthwhile here. I almost stopped several times.