Mystic River

After a while, one has come to expect mediocrity from Clint Eastwood. "Blood Work" "Space Cowboys" and "Sudden Impact" all shining examples of this. But what he has here is true; sophisticated, intricate and rewarding. Viewing is definitely recommended.

Three boys, Dave (Tim Robbins) Jimmy (Sean Penn) and Sean (Kevin Bacon) are reunited after the murder of Jimmy's nineteen year-old daughter. Immediately, a whodunit case arrives. Sounds average, dunnit?...

No. It's much more than average. What might appear as a normal murder mystery is more. The acting, particularly from Robbins and Penn, is immaculate. Robbins is still recovering from child sexual abuse along time ago. Penn, so realistically and amazingly, mourns over the loss of his daughter. Laurence Fishburne (playing cop Whitey) is as smart talking as ever, whilst Kevin Bacon gives a solid performance as the homicide cop investigating the case.

Though the film becomes a bit uneven towards the end, this tough, brutal and uncompromising; but still, a masterpiece, and the best work Eastwood as done in years.

Final Analysis: 9 out of 10

Eastwood's big Oscar hit after "Unforgiven", that other masterpiece directed by Dirty Harry himself. "Mystic River" is based on the bestselling novel by Dennis Lehane and it has an incredible cast. The main leads are for Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon. Furthermore we have Laurence "Morpheus" Fishburne, Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden. The movie itself is very dark and sober without much music. The story is brilliantly written and the acting is without any doubt superb.

I'm glad Sean Penn finally won an Academy Award, he's a brilliant actor and he certainly deserves the recognition. Tim Robbins was good as well, but I think Benicio del Toro should have won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His performance in "21 Grams" was much more superior to Robbins' performance in "Mystic River". Anyway, that's just what I think. Kevin Bacon was excellent as well and he is one of the most underrated actors of his generation. Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney were good as usual.

Although I very much enjoyed this movie, it didn't exactly turned out to be the masterpiece I was expecting. But that's maybe because this was only the first time I watched it. Anyway, I'm still looking forward to see Eastwood's masterpiece of this year: "Million Dollar Baby". But this movie is absolutely worth seeing as well.

8,5/10

When I finally got to watch Mystic River, I was mesmerized by the acting of the ensemble cast. I watched this movie twice, alone and again with my husband. The content of the movie is relevant in any time frame. Upon watching it the second time I noticed "small" things that tied the movie and its characters together. Forgiveness, no I would not classify any of the characters as forgiving. It is very clear that Dave probably never receive counseling for the unspeakable crime done to him as a boy, Jimmy never really let go of his "on edge nerve" and Sean remains the responsible friend but not afraid to face life's messes. To watch a human drama unfold with such sad consequences and heavy retribution on one hand and little to no retribution on the other hand is a depiction that life is not always fair and some of us receive the bounty of life, while others get the smaller piece of pie.

This movie was well acted and well directed. I will never forget Sean Penn's portrayal of Jimmy in this star ensemble cast.

I haven't seen an ending this bad in a long time. This should have been a good movie and 2/3 of the way through it was. But the ending just went completely berserk. You spend two hours building characters so that they can change on a dime? What happens at the end makes absolutely no sense. I can only assume that the people who are calling this a masterpiece either left very early or were mistakenly watching Kill Bill.

I can't even explain what happened or how that many talented people wouldn't notice that they were veering off course. I feel like the cast were betrayed by this wacky ending. I would actually give the first part of the movie a 9 but then ending a 5. So it's a 7/10 for me. It's a shame. And the worst part is it probably will win a lot of awards since hype is all you need to get praise nowadays.

Mystic River deals with three men, once boyhood friends, who all estrange the people closest to them. Their characters become flawed because of events, of how they choose to be, or their calling. It doesn't really say anything profound, but the acting and screenplay in the first half are quite good. Brian Helgeland, whose script writing seems to veer between brilliant (L.A. Confidential) and fairly abysmal (The Sin Eater), provides three quarters of sheer maestro, a story that unfolds with a growing sense of unease; characters that, as in real life, feel no need to state the obvious but let us piece together clues. But a gripping story of childhood bonds gone bad, murder, the frailty of human certainty and belief in flawed values – all wonderful elements that should offer a filmmaker so much – are stymied by flimsy resolutions and ultimately unlovable characters. An edge of the seat mystery builds to a limp climax that rather suggests they ran out of money, or film or ideas. There is no great moral dilemma as some critics have tried to suggest – all the characters try to do good in their own screwed up way, some with better intentions than others, and most of them fail.

Mystic River has a stellar cast – Tim Robbins, Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon to name a few – and there are some excellent performances. Penn, in the lead role, is sadly perhaps the weakest of these three as he is seems far too conscious of those ‘Oscar worthy moments', with the camera closing in for yet another close-up of his lingering, tortured, seemingly over-rehearsed expressions. Actors who go through this phase need a rapid infusion of French Cinema to correct their hyperbaric egos if they wish to ascend loftily and gracefully through stardom. Robbins and Bacon seem far more comfortable with their roles, without the need to be centre stage quite so much, and Marcia Gay Harden, who has already collected one Oscar for her role in Pollock, is quite superb, playing a long suffering wife with what seems like suppressed hysteria growing into panic. Mystic River is a good film and worth going to see - but such a shame it isn't another cinematic masterpiece we feel we can still hope for from director Clint Eastwood.