Mystic River (Widescreen Edition) Reviews

• Mystic River Runs Through Our Minds, Again and Again

  
  By A1TPW86OHXTXFC on 2003-11-06
  Dennis Lehane wrote the book and Clint Eastwood directed the movie. It is rare that a movie is equal to the book, but in this case they are both superb works of art. Three young boys friends and playmates grow up in Southie,a neighborhood in Boston. On a summer's day, Jimmy, (Sean Penn) and Sean (Kevin Bacon) have marked their names in fresh cement, and Davey (Tim Robbins) is just about to write his name when a car drives up. A man who purports to be a detective tells them they have broken the law and takes Davey with him to tell his mom. Davey goes missing and turns up several days later after running away, a victim of sexual abduction. The friendship is no more with Davey, and he has a difficult adolescence. Years later, these three men unite after the murder of Jimmy's teenage daughter. Each man has had his tribulations. Jimmy has spent time in prison, and it appears that he remains the thug as depicted. Sean Penn gives the performance of his life. Sean became the character, Jimmy. I was
  unable to take my eyes from him- he is the center of the movie- a rough, tumbled man with passion and love for his family. Sean, Kevin Bacon, has become a detective in the Massachusetts State Police. His life has fallen apart- his wife has left him and calls frequently but won't talk- what is that all about? Sean is an honest detective, an oxymoron except in his case. And Davey, Tim Robbins is rambling through life with a wife, Marcia Gay Harden and young son. Davey's wife, Celeste has a fear that Davey is responsible for the death of Jimmy's daughter. The lives of all three men and all those who surround them are intertwined in a complex maze. Did Davey murder Jimmy's daughter? Who and how is the young man who was going to leave town with Jimmy's daughter, involved with these people? Will Sean and his wife resolve their communication difficulties? This remarkable movie is a culmination of Clint Eastwood's directorial abilities. The praise that has been heaped is well deserved. Sean Penn will most certainly obtain an Oscar nomination for his part in this movie-he became the movie. The movie is indeed dark, but the message is clear. A movie well worth your time.`
  
  

• A stunning film based on a tragic novel.

  
  By AC1K4OQOZ90RS on 2003-11-03
  Clint Eastwood's adaptation of Dennis Lehane's wrenching best-seller, "Mystic River," is a remarkable achievement. Having read the book shortly before seeing the movie, I was impressed with Eastwood's faithfulness to the letter and spirit of Lehane's story.

  Sean Penn plays Jimmy Markham (Marcus in the book), a small time hood who did a stint in prison almost two decades earlier. Jimmy now owns a grocery store, is a loving family man, and seems to have given up his criminal ways. As a child, Jimmy was a close friend of Sean Devine, who grew up to become a homicide detective, and Dave Boyle, played by the wonderful Tim Robbins. Boyle endured a terrible trauma as a child, and he is tortured by horrifying thoughts that he can never escape. When Jimmy's nineteen-year-old daughter, Katie, is found brutally murdered, Sean investigates with his partner, played by Laurence Fishburne, and the lives of the three old friends intersect once again.

  The stellar cast of "Mystic River" is amazingly effective. Each actor completely inhabits his or her character. Sean Penn's performance is brutal and heart-rending, and Tim Robbins convincingly plays a man on the brink of madness. Supporting these fine actors are Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden, as Jimmy's and Dave's wives.

  Eastwood wisely shot his film on the streets of Boston, and Tom Stern's atmospheric and skillful cinematography contribute to the film's realistic and dramatic look. "Mystic River" is a powerful drama about how desperate people react when they are under tremendous emotional pressure. This mythic tragedy proves Faulkner's dictum, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." The mistakes we make and the injuries that we suffer are always with us in one way or another. Kudos to Eastwood and his fine cast and crew on making an exceptional film.
  
  

• Good acting, interesting story. But I wish I'd liked it more

  
  By AR37967IAR6ZT on 2003-10-31
  Now, if you're going for a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat or if you're seeking a mystery that's plot-driven and all about the clues, then MYSTIC RIVER is definitely not going to satisfy you. I went to see it because the cast that director Clint Eastwood assembled is incredible, and the story is motivated by character-rooted actions and decisions.

  Still, I was underwhelmed by MYSTIC RIVER.

  Sean Penn is absolutely brilliant playing a neighborhood ex-con who becomes a successful businessman, yet he cannot escape his past when his daughter is brutally murdered. It's a role that seems like the sort of part Penn has played well before, yet there are layers to his character that are fascinating to watch. Still, at the same time, his character Jimmy never really surprised me with any of his actions. I saw where the film was pretty much going from its opening moments, and it went exactly in that direction.

  Tim Robbins, playing an adult survivor of a childhood abduction and molestation, does incredibly well at creating a suspicious yet sympathetic character. He, though, is also saddled with a plot contrivance that was brought in from the book, where he doesn't share crucial information at a point when you would expect him to, even when he can. That's an incredibly frustrating thing to watch in any film, where you feel that the characters are withholding information merely to service the film's plot.

  Kevin Bacon, playing the third lead character, has far less to do in the film. He's saddled with a strangely-filmed subplot involving his wife, who calls on the phone throughout the film but doesn't speak and whose face is never shown. His character, as well, isn't as well-rounded as the other leads.

  In supporting roles, the amazing Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden play the spouses of men caught up in a bizarre murder mystery. Linney's closing speech at the end of the film is so good that I wished the film had more moments with her in them. Harden's final scene is compelling and heartbreaking.

  All in all, I thought MYSTIC RIVER was an incredibly acted, flawed mystery film.
  
  

• "Mystic River" is Eastwood's finest masterpiece to date!

  
  By A20ZFWGBY4REFX on 2003-10-27
  Directed by double Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood (Best Director and Best Picture, "Unforgiven" (1992)) from a screenplay by Brian Helgeland ("L.A. Confidential"), based on a bestseller by ace mystery writer Dennis Lehane, and starring such respected, actorly heavyweights as Sean Penn ("I Am Sam"), Tim Robbins ("Mission to Mars"), Kevin Bacon ("Flatliners"), Laurence Fishburne (The "Matrix" films), Marcia Gay Harden ("Meet Joe Black"), and Laura Linney ("The Mothman Prophecies"), "Mystic River" has as unimpeachable a pedigree as any American studio film in history. And though it may not quite be the masterpiece that the early buzz suggests, it certainly makes the most of the tremendous talents at its disposal. A mournful meditation on revenge and guilt, "Mystic River" is perhaps Eastwood's most mature and moving examination yet of what has always been his great subject: the peculiarly American juxtaposition of vigilante violence and official justice.

  The film flows from two linked moments of violence, which, in turn, beget other violence -- one moment that pulls three childhood friends apart and another, 30 years later, that brings them back together. "Mystic River" opens in the '70s (the period established by a transistor radio broadcasting a Red Sox game with Luis Tirant on the mound), in a working-class neighborhood, as three boys play street hockey. There's Dave, who seems a little slow, Jimmy, a reckless kid who wants to steal a neighborhood car for joyriding, and Sean, a cautious kid who frowns on Jimmy's plan. Finding a slab of sidewalk where the concrete is still wet, the boys begin writing their names only to be confronted by two older men posing as cops, who take Dave away in the back of their car, where he is kept for several days and sexually abused before escaping. Flashing forward to the same neighborhood decades later, Dave (Robbins) is an introverted husband and father who doesn't seem to have quite recovered from his childhood ordeal. Jimmy (Penn) is an ex-con who runs a corner grocery store in the neighborhood but is still crime-connected. And Sean (Bacon) is now a Boston homicide detective, an outsider in the old neighborhood, working his beat with an astute African-American partner named Whitey (Fishburne). Jimmy and Dave are still friends -- Jimmy's ice-queen wife Annabeth (Linney) is a cousin of Dave's warm but (understandibly) skittish wife Celeste (Harden) -- but all three friends are brought together when Jimmy's 19 year-old daughter Katie (Emmy Rossum) turns up missing, and later dead, on the same night that Dave returns home late covered in someone else's blood. A distraught Jimmy, not waiting for the legal system to work, has a couple of his neighborhood goons out looking for the killer, while Sean is assigned to work the case. (The parallel police and underworld investigations might be a nod to Fritz Lang's serial-killer masterpiece 'M', which would only be a beginning to the debt "Mystic River" owes to Lang's artful police procedurals.) As Sean and Whitey investigate the case, dual clues point strongly to two suspects: Dave, one of the last people to see Katie alive, and a neighborhood boy whom she had been dating.

  By acclimation, "Mystic River" is Clint Eastwood's finest film since 1992's Oscar-winner "Unforgiven", and you'll find no argument here. A handsome, old-fashioned film, it's so stately, so measured, and so elegant that it acts as a formal rebuke to most other contemporary studio takes on this kind of material. "Mystic River" is a mystery spiked with deep emotion and considerable gravitas. It has a tremendous feel for its location, for this almost tribal old-school neighborhood on the brink of gentrification. It's marked by a tight vocabulary of formal elements -- sure crosscutting and sweeping pans over the film's title waterway. Most of all, it seems intentionally driven by a vast series of doubles and rhymes: two wives, two mute witnesses, two murders, two investigations, two friends whose lives go in opposite directions, two heartbreaking shots -- 30 years apart -- of Dave in the backseat of a car being taken away. And this matches the film's series of actorly one-on-one confrontations: Dave and Celeste, Dave and Jimmy, Celeste and Jimmy, Jimmy and Sean, Jimmy and Annabeth. But Eastwood's precise, conservative direction makes room for occasional visual flourishes, such as the operatic matching aerial shots that show Katie's bloodied, beaten body, found in a park, and nearby Jimmy howling as he's held back by a phalanx of cops.

  As one might expect, "Mystic River" is as much an actor's film as it is a director's. Its performances are uniformly excellent, with Sean Penn's and Tim Robbins' showy turns perhaps bested by Marcia Gay Harden, whose doting but doubtful wife is perhaps the film's most tragic figure. "Mystic River" isn't perfect. Laura Linney's underwritten part makes Annabeth's sinister, ruthless late transformation seem awkward and abrupt, and sometimes Eastwood reaches a little too much for effect (or for the Oscar) when the generally understated music swells more than necessary. But these are just quibbles.

  "I'm gonna find him. I'm gonna find him before the police do and I'm gonna kill him," Jimmy says as he stands over Katie's lifeless body. His insistence on keeping that promise is the source of Eastwood's most effective critique yet of American vigilante justice. "Mystic River" ends with a patriotic neighborhood parade, all the film's major characters in the crowd. It looks welcoming and friendly, but for one character it's a moment of horror and loss that brings "Mystic River" full circle. In conclusion, a powerful cast and superb direction by Clint Eastwood makes this story of violence and justice an unforgettable one. A DVD must-own when released!
  
  

• Go ahead...mess my day

  
  By AWAAE4AKR0JQT on 2004-03-02
  This movie was a total disgrace. I know the majority of the story was taken straight from David Lehane's novel, but the fact that the amateurish performances of Sean Penn and Tim Robbins actually won Academy Awards is laughable. Penn turned in a nuanced, heartfelt performance in 21 Grams, but was honored for this botched attempt at seriousness. And Bill Murray, who gave an award-worth performance, has to settle for a Golden Globe.
  Even worse was Robbins, who gave THE WORST performance of all those nominated for Academy Awards, yet won because Hollywood is populated by politically-influenced morons.
  Think about it: Robbins was playing a man damaged by childhood sexual abuse. He started out making the most of his damaged character -- unsure of whether to revel in telling his son about his high school athletic achievements or to keep his younger years to himself lest his son find out about the men who raped him.
  Suddenly, the daughter of his childhood friend (Penn) is killed. Robbins' character is suspected because he comes home bloody, but with a poor explanation.
  His other childhood friend (Kevin Bacon) is a cop, who, with his partner (Laurence Fishburne), is investigating the murder. Somehow, in the course of the movie, Robbins' character goes from pathetic man-child to master-criminal in minutes.
  Bacon and Fishburne put him in an interogation room, and the man who was afraid of his own shadow minutes earlier suddenly knows hos to take advantage of "good cop, bad cop," and how to formulate an alibi out of the fact that someone has stolen his car.
  I know these problems are at heaert the responsibility of the screenwriter and director, but Robbins, as a screenwriter and director himself, should be ashamed of taking an award for such an inconsistent character -- especially when actors such as Benicio Del Toro and Djimon Hounsou were nominated for far better performances and others such as Sean Astin were denied nominations for REAL acting.
  The only real mystery abour Mystic River is how is won ANY awards.
  
  
• Dull Movie
  By A2U2E37IQMBI08 on 2004-03-10
  The storyline is boring, the acting is marginal, the plot is senseless, the directing is bad, and the cinematography is awful. I don't know why this movie got so many rave reviews. And I can't believe that Sean Penn and Tim Robbins won Oscars for their mediocore performances. I guess the competition just wasn't that tough this year.

  The first ten minutes of this movie led you believe that you were in for a nice suspense/thriller. But as the movie progresses, you find yourself asking "where is this movie going?", and "what the hell does the child molestation of Tim Robbin's character have to do with the murder of Sean Penn's character's daughter?". By the end of the movie, the answer to your questions are "nowhere" and "NOTHING", respectively. The storyline and plot just didn't make sense to me.

  Also, for all of you who have an eye for picking out "movie flaws", check out the scene at the morgue when the dead little girl is laying on the table. Look very closely and you can see her still "breathing". Clint Eastwood's directing is so terrible that he can't even get someone to CONVINCINGLY play dead for a few seconds.

  This flick is terribly overrated!
  
  

• Violence Breeds Violence.
  By A38U2M9OAEJAXJ on 2003-11-04
  "Mystic River" is an across-the-board triumph of filmmaking by the talented Clint Eastwood, who not only directed and co-produced this movie, but also composed the film's dark and brooding score. Set in working class Boston, it tells the story of two childhood friends (Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon) who are emotionally scarred after witnessing the abduction of another friend, Dave (Tim Robbins). As adults, Jimmy (Penn) is an ex-con trying to make a decent living with his wife Annabeth (Laura Linney), while Sean (Bacon) is a homicide detective. But when Jimmy's daughter is suddenly killed, a murder mystery soon unfolds and Sean is soon called upon to investigate the case. While much has been made of "Mystic River"'s cinematography, the film's power lies in the performances, all of which are stunningly good. Expect yet another Oscar nomination for Sean Penn, who vividly brings to life the agony of a mourning parent desperate to seek revenge for the murder of his child. The solid Marcia Gay Harden also deserves props for her role as Dave's wife Celeste. But the real star of the show is definitely the 73-year-old Eastwood, who no doubt made his best film in years. You can run to the multiplex to catch a big budget movie that's louder and flashier. But in terms of dramatic tension, believable performances, and a witty script, "Mystic River" is so far the movie to beat in 2003.
  
  
• A depressing reunion - should be 4 1/2 stars
  By A39AWL2FKWDFK6 on 2004-01-17
  Clint Eastwood does a superlative job in directing an extremely fine cast in his gloomy, foreboding portrayal of Dennis Lehane's poignant novel.

  Three boyhood friends, Jimmy, Sean and Dave who grew up in a lower middle class Boston neighborhood reunite due to the apparent murder of one of their children. The boys have taken separate and divergent paths since one of them was abducted and molested many years ago. Sean Penn is superb playing Jimmy Markham, a reformed ex-con whose daughter was murdered. The murder investigation is headed by Trooper Sean Devine played by Kevin Bacon and his partner Laurence Fishburn. Tim Robbins does a creditable job in his portrayal of Dave Boyle, a married working stiff tormented by internal demons as a result of his abduction.
  Both Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden give convincing performances as Penn and Robbins's respective wives.

  In one scene when Penn learns that his daughter is actually the murder victim, he goes off the deep end. This awesome scene is reminiscent of James Cagney going ballistic in White Heat, one of the most classic scenes in cinema history.

  The appearance of Eli Wallach, one of the most accomplished character actors of all time, as the liquor store owner was a terrific reunion with Eastwood (not since The Good, The Bad and The Ugly).
  
  

• The past is never really finished with us
  By A2ODBHT4URXVXQ on 2004-06-14
  This is not a who-done-it. This is high drama, a deep character study. And this is one helluva superior movie. It's 3 kids, working-class poor, whose lives were changed the day one of them was abducted by a pedophile. That opening scene doesn't take long, but it's riveting with menace and seems to last forever. Then, flash forward maybe 3 decades. The boys are now men, each chasing his own demons.
  Dave, the man who was abused as a child is married with a child of his own, but he's an emotional shell, vulnerable in his arrested development. Jimmy, the brash one as a kid, is still brash. He did 2 years in prison for a petty crime and is now a devoted father of 3 daughters and owner of a corner store in the old neighborhood. Sean is an unemotional homicide detective whose job it is to notify Jimmy of his daughter's death and find her killer.
  The three have long ago drifted apart. Then Jimmy's 19yo daughter from a first marriage is murdered. And somebody's got to pay. Turns out they all pay in different ways.
  The directing by Clint Eastwood is superb; those who have read the excellent book will be pleased at how carefully he stays true to it. The acting is beyond superb; the three men are so perfectly cast that you completely forget they're acting. In this respect, the movie belongs to Sean Penn, an actor who's kept getting better and better and better over the years till now: and now, he's perfect. The plot is crafty and convoluted. The setting, shot in a working-class Boston neighborhood, is realistic.
  There are only a couple of oddly weak spots, and they're not weak enough to deserve the loss of a rating star. But Sean (the cop) had a nameless, faceless, estranged wife who keeps calling him and not speaking - and this is left unexplained. And Laura Linney plays Jimmy's wife (the only questionable bit of casting, IMO) who has this rather long speech near the end that's kind of out of nowhere and pretty over-the-top.
  Still, five solid stars and at least one Oscar nomination, for sure. Maybe 2 or 3. Top rating.
  
  
• Overrated and underwhelming
  By A1Z4HSOHD8YA12 on 2004-02-05
  I must say that I am dumbfounded by all the great press this film continues to get. The actors are all good I suppose, and Eastwood's direction is fairly surehanded, but the plot is just too contrived and unfocused. One also gets the impression from the trailer and title that the river would be a sort of character in the film, but it is scarcely mentioned and only really shows up as the background for one scene. For all Eastwood's chatter about how the Boston location was so integral to the film, the locations all feel pretty generic. Perhaps most disappointing however, are the extreme inconsistencies in some of the main characters. Laura Linney (who plays Sean Penn's wife) spends the entire film behaving like your average grieving parent, then delivers a wild Shakespearean monologue in the last scene that seems to be spoken by a different character. Likewise, Sean Penn's ex-con character begins the film as a complex and sympathetic father and husband, but quickly devolves into a fairly stereotypical mob-figure by the last scene. Lots of seemingly important threads that the film spends enormous screen time on are never explained, such as Kevin Bacon's marital problems with his seemingly mute wife. It seems that all the self-important reviewers piling accolades on this film think that just because something tragic happens in a film that it suddenly becomes art. The greatest tragedy in Mystic River is that it was made at all.
  
  
• Contrived beyond belief, overacted; a meandering mess
  By A24F1UX8ZT5IXY on 2004-02-19
  So many great criticisms have been written about this film on Amazon already: from the ridiculous plot that relies on about 20 coincidences and characters witholding crucial information in completely unrealistic ways -- to Sean Penn's inconsistent and overacted performance -- to the silly Lady Macbeth speech at the end which didn't have a freakin' thing to do with anything that came before. A lack of directoral skill seems very evident, as people are just acting up storms all around the place with nowhere to go. If the film attempted to be a trenchant look at loyalties and dynamics in a working-class urban environment, it failed. If it was really trying to be a sophisticated, postmodern whodunnit -- it failed. Even the costume design (Sean Penn's Donnie Brasco jacket at the end looked ridiculous and way too Hollywood) was off the mark by leagues. This film is very infuriating becuase it makes you sit through all this "character development" and then it simply hemmorages on itself. The redeeming elements? Well at least it was about human beings and not explosions / car chases. Bacon and Fishbourne were good.
  
  
• An implausible, moral vacuum
  By A22RGEI19Z9AEV on 2004-12-18
  I approached this film with high expectations, which faded fairly quickly once I realized it had that phony hollywood-hyperrealism that one associates with certain Steven Speilberg movies. The supposedly lower middle class neighborhood looked terrific! (I wish my town had such a prosperous underclass.) From the very start, it was clear that a viewer was required to suspend all logic and judgment as we watch a child docily get in a car with a stranger, while his two passive playmates look on, and the crowded neighborhood is suddenly bereft of even casual onlookers. No child I know would do that without putting up a fight, kicking, screaming, running away....anything!
  
  The film unfolds with layer upon layer of suspended disbelief required. The Savage brothers are absurdities -- I felt like they had been dropped in from another movie like the cast of Who Killed Roger Rabbit. Stereotypes abounded, from the evil, beanie-wearing skateboarders to the inexplicable match between the murdered girl and her boyfriend, who looked about 6 years younger and 50 IQ points stupider than she.
  
  I agree with reviewers who praised some of the acting. There were indeed some masterful performances, although character development was virtually nil. Even given my rolling eyes, I stayed with the movie until the end, when all pretense of plausibiliy was dropped. I absolutely fault the direction, if not the screen-writers. How did Sean Penn's wife become such a depraved human being? From whence comes the black hole that is Sean Penn's character himself? We are bludgeoned with the molested-child theme until Tim Robbins' character is ground to a pulp and yet have no insight into Penn's character or motivations. The end of the film drops like an overripe fruit, revealing a sickly sweet rot. My entire family was appalled by the totally amoral tone (including a cynical teenager). I felt disturbed and sullied just for having watched this film, because it seemed to imply that evil -- not good -- is lighter than air.
  
  What redemption -- the scrim against which all good tragedies are projected -- are we to conclude occurs? The idiotic reunion of Kevin Bacon and his estranged wife (who had his baby while she was away, and would repeatedly call him without being able to say a word until -- voila! -- he admitted he had been sort of withholding and she came flying back) doesn't qualify; sorry. The completely confusing and senseless disintegration of the inexplicably pathetic young perp and his friend? The overwrought pathos of another young boy (Robbins' son) being robbed of happiness? What happens to Penn, ye olde double murderer? Anything at all? Isn't the police department remotely concerened about who has murdered the second victim in this movie?
  
  Gaaaaaak! Morally bankrupt, facile and gratuitous premises, shallow direction, some fine performances. Leave it .
  
  
• A Masterful Psychological Study
  By A1XNXHTPQRACRO on 2005-04-25
  "Mystic River" aspires to transcend its genre so boldly that I found myself overwhelmed by its audacity. Those who expect a plot driven murder mystery or a crime story will be sorely disappointed. In this film, the plot recedes into insignificance. Like all great works of art, the heart and soul of this work is not its plot, but its characters and its themes. The result is one of the most powerful explorations of tragedy to come out of modern cinema.
  
  Clint Eastwood has crafted a film of unique scope, examining multifaceted aspects of tragedy with a mix of depth and simplicity that, on the one hand, relentlessly examines themes of sin, guilt, victimization and vengeance, while on the other, combines directing and acting so clean and uncluttered that we are not so much audiences to a narrative as we are witnesses to broken lives.
  
  This film cannot be approached lightly. It is unsparing in its intensity. Characters are trapped in the arc of tragedy as inevitably as in a Greek play, unrelieved by either redemption or reprieve. The darkness of the story does not result from some self-indulgent existential auteurism. Rather, it arises out of an uncompromising sense of authenticity. Eastwood takes this tragedy to its honest conclusion and does not give in to the Hollywood hankering for happy endings. This is an intelligent film for mature people who refuse to put up with cop-outs.
  
  The acting is nothing short of inspiring. Sean Penn is unforgettable as a tormented Jimmy who claws his way out of evil through the love of his daughter, only to sink back deeper than ever in the aftermath of her murder. Tim Robbins, in a similarly pitch-perfect performance, is tormented by even crueller demons, and never finds any sort of relief, save for transient moments of grace with his son. Kevin Bacon gives a subtle and restrained performance as a cop who acts as our disjointed moral sense, never sure of guilt or innocence, counting on the law to separate good from evil, and silently praying that that will prove sufficient. The supporting women, from Laura Linney to Marcia Gay Harden turn in performances in every way equal to those of the lead male characters. Character flaws abound, suspicion builds to blind fury, events unfold and vengeance compounds into tragedy until we arrive at an ending nothing short of Shakespearean.
  
  It's a shame that the typical film synopsis leaves the impression that this is another who-dunnit. This film is no more about story than "Hamlet" is just about some guy out to catch his father's murderer. In both cases, focusing on the plot is to entirely miss the point. This film is a modern work of art, sharing a deeper kinship to masterful psychological studies like "Heart of Darkness" or "Crime and Punishment" than to any crime story. What matters is not how characters act, but why they act. We are compelled not by the arc of the story but by the arc of tragedy. We sympathise not with the virtues of the characters, but with their tragic flaws.
  
  Approach this film the way you would "Othello". Then prepare to be moved by a depth of insight rare to our superficial age.
  
  
• Grim, empty, cruel and dumb
  By A10C0TAWDYVMFU on 2005-11-20
  I don't like this movie, but I want to comment on something that some other haters of the movie keep saying. That the ending of this film is supposed to condone Jimmy's actions. Jimmy isn't supposed to be a righteous hero. The message isn't that that justice was served. Just the opposite, it's just showing us more pointless, demoralizing misery. Just another punch in the jaw to the audience.
  
  This movie is a meaningless, hateful film that's only message seems to be "life sucks". Call me kooky, but I don't see movies so that I can feel even worse about humanity and life in general. I knew this movie was going to be heavy subject matter but this is just a gratuitous portrait of misery. I expected something deeper, some kind of sense of spirituality, of humanity. Instead it seems to think misery is all the meaning and reason it needs. But for some bizzare reason it seems to think it's very important. It's so overblown it's ridiculous. The movie is filled with crappy people living crappy lives. If I want to deal with people this nasty and worthless I don't need to go to the movies. No one ever traumatised by anything is going to get anything positive out of the portrayal of Dave. It's skewed disgustingly and is downright irresponsible. The ending is just plain STUPID. When I saw it I couldn't believe that this sloppy lameness was what the mystery had "unraveled" as. The acting's decent. Big deal. It takes more than solid acting to impress me, and the acting is overrated anyway. Tim Robins would probably be better off on the stage. There are technical flaws in the way the movie was shot. The sound is HORRIBLE.
  
  But what it really comes down to is that there's really nothing positive you can get out of this movie. See it if you want to give up on life. Some would say that the fact that the film moved me enough to make me deeply miserable makes it a "good" movie. I say my ass. To just grab the audiences' emotions and abuse them and then let them drop is wrong. There's enough trauma in people's lives without leaving them with an artificial trauma to deal with. This wasted my time and worse, my emotions. I can't reccomend this movie to anyone unless they're masochists.
  
  
• Terrible and dangerous distortions in this movie
  By on 2004-02-04
  I saw Mystic River last night, which had brilliant acting and was beautifully put together; by the end I was totally under the movie's spell. Coming to myself, though, I think it's an evil, though clearly well-intentioned movie. Not just because it's full of ludicrous and manipulative plot coincidences, like simultaneous murders (separately involving people who'd coincidentally spent the evening in the same place, these murders occurring at the same time, on the same night, of victims with the same blood type), people who won't confess secrets to their wife when they obviously would, and mutes suddenly able to speak just long enough to give things away.

  What makes it so terrible is the movie's clear point (reinforced in a couple of different ways, including through casual remarks by the cops) that to be abused as a child is a terrible fate that destroys you in mind and soul and turns you into an abuser and killer. Hello? Could one person in the movie have said something (less didactic but...) "Wait, what about all the abused kids who grow up to be teachers and healers and wonderful human beings?" A perfect moment would have been when one cop was assuming that the former abused child was inevitably the killer because "it fits the profile. He was an abused kid -- why don't we already have him locked up?" Why not answer that? Because any balance or note of reality that didn't slander former abused children would apparently have interfered with the film's insistence on an utterly bleak worldview. For that, it is willing to sacrifice reality and to create dangerous misconceptions in the mind of the public. If you were abused, says this movie (or, if, in fact, you even were friends with someone abused), you're destroyed for life and will shamble in madness and despair for the rest of your life.
  
  

• Sean Penn and Tim Robbins are outstanding
  By A2GPEV42IO41CI on 2004-06-25
  In Mystic River, director Clint Eastwood has taken the themes of pain and loss, added superb actors, and a literate script to make a memorable movie.
  
  Jimmy, Sean, and Dave were childhood buddies growing up in a working-class neighborhood in Boston. One day, Dave was lured away and sexually abused by two men. Years later, Jimmy (Penn) is an ex-con with a loving family, Sean (Bacon) is a cop with marital woes, and Dave (Robbins), forever damaged by his childhood trauma, is barely clinging to reality. When Jimmy's daughter is murdered, Sean investigates, Jimmy vows vigilante justice, and Dave is a prime suspect.
  
  The lead actors are outstanding here. Penn is utterly convincing as the former thug and grieving father. Robbins displays his acting chops in the performance of a lifetime, showing a fragile man dealing with such pain that he can no longer function rationally. The two men certainly deserved their Oscars.
  
  This is a movie that will pull at your heartstrings while keeping you guessing who the killer is. There are, thankfully, no graphic scenes of child abuse or the girl's death, yet you will be on the edge of your seat much of the time. This is an outstanding film.
  
  
• Utter Trash. DO NOT READ THIS IF U DON'T WANT SPOILERS!!!!
  By A13Q6DZC1WZ9K6 on 2004-11-07
  This movie epitomizes every reason why I am beginning to hate Hollywood. They all live in a fantasy world where the plot of this movie makes sense and is acceptable. This movie is one of the crappiest pieces of dog mess that I have ever had the displeasure of watching.
  
  Let's forget the overacting for a minute. No, let's not. That scene in the beginning Sean Penn crying and being restrained by the cops did not, and I repeat DID NOT qualify as Oscar material. I laughed at it. This movie was completely over the top.
  
  O, did I mention that I fell asleep the first time?
  
  Anyways, I'm not going to say that this had potential b/c to give it potential would be to scrap this entire script. Nothing in it makes sense. I am truly fighting the urge to spoil it (well, some reviewers already did). I just want to say this: I thought it was very traitorous how Celeste sold out Dave to Jimmy. ESPECIALLY since she didn't even know for sure if he killed Katie. And then at the end, she's concerned when he goes missing. Well duh! You sold your husband and your son's father out to a known convict. Also, it sickened me how they set Dave up. I'm really mad how Jimmy lied to him and made him think that if he said he did it, he'd live. Dave didn't even die with dignity. Geez. And somehow we're supposed to cheer Jimmy on for "serving justice." He should be locked up and the key to his cell should be thrown in the Mystic!
  
  And then at the end when Kevin Bacon finds out that Jimmy offed Dave. Does nothing about it. We are treated to a phone call by his wife that served no relevance to the movie. Give me a break. A man just died and we are served to smiles and happy times by all characters involved in an ending coverup. Celeste at the end deserved what she got, but not Dave's son (who was on the float upset b/c his dad wasn't there).
  
  Unfreakin' believable that Sean Penn kills Dave, goes home and tells his wife, and then she appeases this murderer by saying he did what he had to do and it's ok if he wants to do it again. And then we are treated to a tasteless shot of her getting ready to satisfy him. Utter trash.
  
  I hate movies like this and I hate Hollywood for thinking we are so stupid to enjoy this drivel and believe that this is how the world should be. Gee, that thinking cost yall the '04 election, didn't it? Nuff said.
  
  
• Leaves you feeling empty...
  By A30J2ZQDJB37O8 on 2006-04-24
  PRO:
  First, the acting too me was overall great work. Penn might have seem to have overacted, but it fit his character well (an ex-convict who loses somthing precious (his daughter) while trying to live a straight life). Robbins has the tougher character of trying to find peace in his life as he continues to struggle w/ coming to terms w/ his past (being sexually abused). Dave (Robbins) is basically slowly dying (methaporically) but still has some hope in overcoming his problems. So Robbin's character is very psycological and depressing and Robbins does a great job. Bacon's character was more dull. His wife left him and he's just trying to get her back. He's tough and seem to have good morals (is a good cop and even rejects a coworker's advances).
  
  Second, the directing to me was fine. Nothing special. It got to the point and told the story nicely. But Eastwood seem to get more praise for the fact that he's a legendary actor then skill.
  
  Third, the initial setup of the movie is great. Central to the storyline is basically the friendship of the 3 boys (Penn, Robbin, Bacon) and how they each had to endure the hardship of that tragic day. Mainly Robbins who remain traumatized. W/ the death of Penn's daughter, Robbins (the main suspect) descending towards insanity and w/ the cops (Bacon and Fisburne) and Penn slowly unravelling the murder, the build up was great.
  
  CON:
  No Central Theme or Morals
  The movie tries to focus on the three main characters and how they were each affected by the tragedy but eventually it becomes obvious that its mainly about Penn and Robbins. Bacon wasnt that integral to the storyline. Penn was built up like a hero and you sympathize w/ him because of the grief he was experiencing. On the other spectrum the movie starts to make Robbins darker. The movie wants you to think Robbins is evil and capable of evil because he was sexually abused. Robbins' becomes almost unbearable to watch (great acting job) in a sense that hes overwrought w/ guilt and imprisoned by his own consciousness and memory. So you go from feeling sympathetic for Robbins to disgust.
  
  But in the end it is Penn who is the evil one: a)winds up mistakenly kill Robbins and b) as we learn more about his past we find out he wasnt just a thief but a murderer too. Robbins resembles more of a hero when he confronts a pedophile in the act but wound up killing him (released his built up frustration and anger of not having a childhood). So although he unknowingly killed the pedophile he had the good intention and bravery of stopping the pedophile (confronting his past).
  
  So what exactly is the point of this movie? Penn seeks his own justice and kills the wrong man. Robbins is overcomed by his past and leaves him alienated from his own family. He holds all of the memories and anything related to it in his mind as to protect his family from the evils of child abuse. So in a sense Robbins is like a martyr but in the end there is absolutely no sense of justice.
  
  Penn gets off scot-free because Bacon as an ode to their friendship looks the other way. Bacon's character throughout the film was seen as a pretty decent guy but in the last act he becomes evil for this decision. The blood of Robbins is on both Penn and Bacon's hands. This is suppose to be a movie about the friendship of 3 young boys?
  
  The ending is absolutely horrible and made no sense. Forget about morals. Penn feels some remorse but his stupid wife (Laura Lindsey) makes him out to be a hero? What?? Just because he loves and protects his daughters he's a good father but yet he just killed a little boy's father. What is going on here? Then w/ the stupid parade at the end, everyone is happy except for Robbin's wife (who is the only character feeling guilty for not trusting her husband and leaving him when he needed her the most)and son (in a very sad scene at the parade). Bacon is happy because he's reunited w/ his estranged wife and baby. And he gives Penn a gesture as if to say everything is fine now. And why would the movie end w/o Robbins' wife confronting Penn and Lindsay? The conflict isnt over. Penn did an evil deed and goes unpunished again (he's killed b4 too).
  
  I watched the movie and expect more from the ending. When the final shot of the actual Mystic River came up i just had a great sense of emptiness. Much like the river the movie became transparent and underneath the river lied many horrors which the movie became. I expected a lot more from this movie. The ending was pretty dumb esp finding out that it was just 2 stupid boys acting like retards w/ a loaded gun? Even in tv shows like Law
  
  
• For my money, Clint Eastwood's gave a crowning achievement as a director,
  By A3C6CZC2JP67VK on 2008-03-11
  Again, I haven't read the book however the Movie does it all. I am sure there are things we all wish to forget. Moments in time in which our lives and the lives of others are altered by one singular movement, one phrase, or that one hockey shot that was just out of reach. Nothing is more true when it comes to the lives of Jimmy (Sean Penn), Sean (Kevin Bacon) and Dave (Tim Robbins). Mystic River is an emotional and amazing film about the reconciliation of three friends and their wives by the tragic murder of Jimmy's eldest daughter, Katie Markum (Emmy Rossum). This rough Boston suburb that lies on the bank of the Mystic River is thrown into sorrow and misery over the loss. Jimmy (Penn) makes a vow to find the killer of his daughter and end him and throw him into the Mystic.
  
  The story is superb. Twists and turns and changing plot lines makes this story brilliantly unpredictable. It proves nothing is what it seems. Dealing with issues of child abduction and the effects it has on the future, Mystic River watches and deals with the change n the course of someone life. What something would be like if Dave hadn't gotten into that strangers car? Katie Markum would never had been born to be murdered.
  
  The acting is bar none and has been recognized by the Academy by awarding Sean Penn and Tim Robbins best actor and best supporting role at the Oscars. Sean Penn was incredible in this film. He was so into his character. An angry gangster trying to move on with his life, and get out of his life of crime and deceit. To love his children and to be the best father he can be. Strong and determined, hard and angry he tries to deal with the grief of the loss of his last real memory of his late first wife. Penn is perfect in performing this role. Tim Robbins is also and incredible actor. A man who had been abused neglected. Finally admitting to himself of the abuse he felt. He kept himself bottled and up. An angry and almost psychopathic man, who is doing his best to try and overcome the terrors he experienced by hopping in the car. An ensemble cast also included: Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Haden, Laurence Fishburn.
  
  Mystic River is truly amazing. Clint Eastwood is an incredible director. If you like Million Dollar Baby then you will simply love "Mystic River." Not to be missed.
  
  
  
  
• Technically superb, but you walk away disappointed!
  By A1RVF43G6YKDTK on 2003-10-19
  The movie is well-acted, well-edited and well-directed. It is, however, extremely dreary and very disappointing at the end. I walked in very eager to see it, but walked out drained and depressed. The message of the film is very dark and pessimistic. There was no closure as victims die and aggressors triumph.

  When I walked out of the theater, many people behind me were chatting about how much they �hated� the movie. I didn�t hate it. I wanted to like it, but I didn�t. It truly deserves zero stars, but I gave it 2 for the acting!

  Do yourself a favor and don�t see this movie.
  
  

• A cold, implausible ending. Tim Robbins was great, though!
  By A2HBRINA3F9YHV on 2005-07-19
  PLUSES: Tim Robbins throroughly deserved his Oscar as this was the best character and on screen performance of his career. The movie was 130 minutes and for 120 minutes it was riveting, emotional, AND had you on the edge of your seat. I was fully enthralled with all the characters and the plot development. All the performances were excellent (with the exception of Laura Linney -- see minuses) and it was a great cast. I liked Laurence Fishburne's portrayal, as he was the extreme opposite of Kevin Bacon, being the unbiased, hard nosed cop, while Bacon had emotional ties to the case and his old friends to deal with. Sean Penn was superb, but I'm not sure about him being Oscar worthy.
  
  MINUSES: Laura Linney's Boston accident was horrible!! Also, in my opinion, her character turned out to be the coldest of the entire movie. Her speech and scene with Penn at the end was utterly unwatchable, disgusting, and revolting! The 120 great minutes of this movie was rolling along and going to be in my top 50 movies of all time. Then I got to this scene and the movie went to not even making my top 500 list. This scene, her character, and her performance were all UTTERLY UNFATHOMABLE!!! Highly unbelievable and contrived! The rest of the movie kind of fell apart in a bad way after that scene, and never recovered. The amount of cold people and cover-ups (7 people involved??) that happened in the last few minutes was completely implausible.
  
  Boom, then it's over. Recommended, but not one to cherish, re-watch, or keep in your collection.
  
  
• still not done loathing
  By AIFNOZKR9WTYI on 2004-07-04
  Here's another run at the badness of this movie. Warning, will blow whole plot. This review is intended for people who have seen this trash and are trying desperately to reassure themselves that they are not alone in hating it.
  Tim Robbin's character, Dave Boyle, was raped by men as a child. Since then he has lived his life as best he can, apparently. He is a devoted husband and father. On the night that Sean Penn's character's daughter is murdered, Boyle has the bad luck to murder a pedophile right at the same time and to behave cagily accordingly. Thereupon he is mistaken by lots of people for Penn's daughter's murderer and is eventually executed by Penn. When it becomes known that he is not the killer, that he did in fact kill a pedophile who was in the process of sexing-up a young boy, the general consensus is, "Ahh, well, its for the best anyway" the idea being that since he was raped as a child he's pretty much better off dead. As one character puts it, "Looks like damaged goods to me." And as Sean Penn's character figuratively says, "The last time I saw Dave Boyle? It was (before he was molested as a child)." So, do you see why I loathe this flick on a variety of levels? Do you? It is not enough for the flick to contain bad acting, bad writing, bad directing, bad continuity... the picture also is morally vile: it is a message movie, the basic message of which is, "If you were molested as a child, do everyone a favor and put a bullet in your head. You're finished. Gee, that's real inspiring.
  
  
• An American Tragedy
  By A3SLA4ADDSYZJ2 on 2004-08-08
  Adapted from Dennis Lehane's critically acclaimed novel, Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" is a masterful achievement. It does nothing less than elevate contemporary working-class Boston into the realm of Shakespearean tragedy. The film is superbly crafted by screenwriter Brian Helgeland and may turn out to be Clint Eastwood's crowning masterpiece as a director. It also helps that Eastwood has assembled one of the finest ensemble casts in years to act out this deep, gripping story. When you have Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laura Linney in the same movie, there isn't a lot that can go wrong. And very little does.
  
  "Mystic River" is the story of three men and the past events that haunt them in adulthood. Jimmy (Penn), Sean (Bacon), and Dave (Robbins) were friends when they were children, until one day Dave is abducted by two men pretending to be police officers. They sexually abuse him and he manages to escape four days later. The story then shifts to the present day, where the three have grown apart from one another. Then the murder of Jimmy's nineteen year old daughter brings them back together.
  
  Sean Penn gives a furious, impressive performance here, for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor. His Jimmy Markham is toughened by the prison time he has done, but will do anything to protect his wife and children. Although there are moments when Penn seems to be showing off how good of an actor he is and going slightly overboard, there is an intensity in his characterization that is mesmerizing. The scenes where Jimmy mourns his murdered daughter are some of the most moving depictions of grief I have ever seen on film.
  
  As the severely disturbed Dave Boyle, Tim Robbins gives the performance of his career. Dave is haunted by what happened to him as a child, and he can do nothing to escape his memories of it. Robbins is astounding to watch, his body sagging with the weight of a lifetime, his eyes filled with fear and shame. It's no wonder that Robbins won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Marcia Gay Harden also turns in solid work as Dave's troubled wife Celeste, who thinks her husband might be a killer. Harden spends much of the film on the edge of hysteria, wracked with guilt. It could have been a thankless role, but Harden makes it count.
  
  With all of the emoting from Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, it would be easy to dismiss Kevin Bacon's work here. As Sean, a homicide detective who has recently been deserted by his wife, Bacon has the least flashy of the three main roles. But with admirable subtlety, Bacon skillfully etches a portrait of a man whose non-nonsense exterior conceals a deep well of pain. As his partner, Laurence Fishburne provides the solid support needed to make the murder investigation plot work.
  
  Mention must also be made of Laura Linney's superb performance. As Jimmy's wife Annabeth, Linney seems to be always in the background, observing. In fact, she barely seems to be in the movie at all. Then she has an astonishing scene at the end of the film, a simple dialogue with her husband where she reveals the Lady Macbeth-like depths of her character. It makes your jaw drop. It is a compliment to Laura Linney's extreme talent as an actress that she almost steals the movie with about ten minutes of screen time.
  
  "Mystic River" is a dark, brooding, masterpiece of a film. The direction, acting, and writing are all first rate. It is an instant classic.
  
  
• "Your daughter's name is Nora!!!"
  By A16HWG8TOURTGN on 2005-01-04
  I came to this movie expecting to be deeply affected, but came away shaking my head in disbelief. The fact that Sean Penn (who gives a performance that is so over-the-top that it's actually somewhat amusing), and Tim Robbins (who has made a career out of being overrated) won Oscars for this piece of manipulative hackwork is downright surreal. Think a two-hour episode of "Law & Order". Or maybe "Kojack".
  
  
• A Powerful Modern Classic!!
  By A2Z0A3DOG0EVTY on 2003-10-16
  My Fiancé and I like to watch LAW AND ORDER on TV. She spends the whole episode trying to figure it out the mystery. I watch the opening moments, meet all the characters, and think about it for a moment and of course I call the outcome 90% of the time. It doesn't mean that I don't enjoy sitting through a good mystery. It's just after a while it becomes more difficult for me not to figure out what happens in the end.

  That's the problem I had with Clint Eastwood's (Blood Work) new film MYSTIC RIVER. It's a riveting and tense thriller, it's one of the best films of year and of course I went and ruined it for myself by figuring out the outcome about an hour before the movie ended. Was it the "Old Economy of Characters" that made it so easy? Not really! I think it's just the film has one logical ending and if you miss the clues you'll kick yourself in the head.

  The story follows three friends in South Boston. They are Jimmy (Sean Penn, I Am Sam), Dave (Tim Robbins, Bob Roberts), and Sean (Kevin Bacon, Wild Things). As kids, Dave was kidnapped and raped by some guys dressed liked cops, they kept him in a dirty cellar for four years until he escaped. He got home but he never quite recovered. Jimmy grew up to be a petty thief, served two years in prison, and is now a legitimate shopkeeper is his neighborhood, and Sean is now a detective with a marriage that's almost non-existent. These three friends are forced to come to grips with their friendship when Jimmy's daughter (Emmy Rossum, Songcatcher) winds up murdered.

  MYSTIC RIVER is about the sins of our past, mistaken identities, and those small moments that change our lives forever. It's about what ties us all together, how we face our demons, and the bonds of friendship and family. It's also about flawed people forced to face the demons. It's probably the best-acted film I've seen all year.

  Sean Penn gives the performance of a lifetime. I finally forgive him for the travesty that was I AM SAM and I'm hoping that he moves on as well. There is a powerful moment, as he must tell his wife (Laura Linney, The Life of David Gale) that his daughter (From a first marriage) is dead. The two of them look at each other for a moment and then embrace. This kind of scene is very rarely powerful, in most films it's almost laughable, but all I could think was "Wow!" For once it wasn't mucked up. For once a director allowed raw power to move a scene and not harsh swelling music.

  Clint Eastwood has proved once again that with the right material he can direct a film that is smart and well told. He has a very shaky track record, for every UNFORGIVEN, there are messes like TRUE CRIME and BLOOD WORK. MYSTIC RIVER is better than UNFORGIVEN, but these two films will be considered classics.

  I liked MYSTIC RIVER. I liked how it unfolded. I just wish I could have shut my brain down because I hate it when I call the end of a good mystery. It reminded me of the moment when I called the end of THE OTHERS. Of course I loved the film, but I felt cheated by my own cleverness. I sometimes wish I could enjoy a movie like the masses. But since I can't, I will sing MYSTIC RIVER'S praises, and beseech the Academy to nominate Penn for this performance, he deserves it.

  So, If you're looking for a taught thriller with lots of mystery give MYSTIC RIVER a chance. It's well worth two hours of your time.

  ****1/2 (out of 5)
  
  

• Uncompromising, grueling. A cinematic powerhouse.
  By A32XW50ILWOXNO on 2003-10-20
  Infused with near-biblical power, Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" is a straight hard drink of masculine theory, a journey into the world's dark, vengeful crevices, where the strong eat the weak, yet are not spared by God, and pay dearly for the feast. Beginning in the streets of Boston during the 1978 baseball pennant race and ending 25 years later on the banks of the title river, Eastwood transforms Dennis Lehane's novel into a portrait on the permanence of tragedy and untidy justice.

  The seams of the plot burst wide open in the film's final 20 minutes, but by then the hooks are in us as much as they are three dye-in-the-wool Irishmen - Jimmy (Sean Penn), Sean (Kevin Bacon) and Dave (Tim Robbins) - caught in a storm of fate that starts to churn when they're 12 years old, as Dave is molested by men pretending to be cops. Dave escapes them after four days, but he's marked - the adult Dave likens it to the undead state of a vampire - and by that adulthood he's lost touch with Jimmy, a shrewd, anguished ex-con running a corner grocery market, and Sean, a square-jawed homicide detective.

  But their lives intersect again when Jimmy's oldest daughter, Katie (Emmy Rossum), is murdered in a nearby park. Dave - who returned home to his wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden) awash in blood and a gash across his belly - is a likely suspect, as is Katie's secret boyfriend (Tom Guiry), who had planned to elope with her to Las Vegas and has more ties to Jimmy than it first seems. Sean and his sharp, no-nonsense partner Whitey (Laurence Fishburne, nicely low key) lead the murder investigation. Jimmy, meanwhile, has his own team of interrogating thugs.

  Eastwood, always for substance over plot, wisely pushes the emotional intangibles of Lehane's novel, bearing his camera down on these haunted men and their frailties, while offering Penn free reign to chew whatever scenery he sees fit: His Jimmy is a smart, passionate man, capable of deep love and deep hate, and always mindful of a criminal side he can tap in a flash.

  Penn has always been a mannered, showy actor, and this performance might be filled with more dramatic blarney than any of his celebrated roles, but he is magnetic in scene after scene; when one character suggests Jimmy could rule the town, we believe it. Penn is a lock for every award nomination they've got to give.

  The rest of the cast is informed by Penn's work, and equally good. Robbins is perfectly cast as a sad-eyed, shut down giant stalked by his own shadow. Dave isn't stupid - watch how swiftly he turns the tables on Sean and Whitey during one interrogation - but broken, and hardly comforted by his timid wife, played by Harden as a bundle of nerves barely holding herself together. Bacon essentially inhabits the Joe Friday role, though his character is wrapped up in a bizarre subplot with a long-estranged wife who calls him up only to say nothing. Guiry is fine as the boyfriend, and Laura Linney, in a small role as Jimmy's wife, Annabeth, is given a rather cruel, unlikely speech in the movie's final moments that nonetheless hammers home the have/have-not theme on which the movie thrives.

  As a director, Eastwood is notoriously quick and economical; as a result, some of his more recent films - "Absolute Power," "True Crime" and "Blood Work" - have been thin and visually flat. But the 73-year-old is up to this material, and much like his masterpiece "Unforgiven," Eastwood has the strong script (from "LA Confidential" writer Brian Helgeland) and actors to tackle a fast shoot. "Mystic River" is stark and naturally lit. The few flourishes it takes - a God's eye view of the murder scene, a screen of pure white during the movie's climax, helicopter tours of the dark, velvet river - are masterful touches.

  "Mystic River" is such a tense, moving experience for much of its running time that the ending, which includes a left-field suspect and a turn of events that fly in the face with judicial reality, is a bit of disorienting letdown. Linney's speech, and that final, cocky shot of Penn, is likely to draw a few looks of disbelief. But the movie has so enforced the idea of lifelong spiritual debt that, while "Mystic River" ends, there is a distinct sense that the characters have not finished their penance. As one character says: "God says you owed another marker. He came to collect."
  
  

• Tsk, tsk, Clint
  By A3IH2L4B5VOA59 on 2003-12-30
  This movie did not deserve the hype it got from artsy critics and lemming-like fans. I for one was deceived into seeing it by the hype. The trailers were enticing as well. But immediately after having seen it I was left with an emptiness and months later, I still find no quality in it that deserves the praise, "Best movie of the year."
  Many reviewers here have already rehashed the plot and commented on the acting. Some have said it's a valuable critique of vigilante justice. I don't find that. To me, it seems as if director Clint Eastwood is getting more and more postmodern in his art and political musings. Eastwood's postmodern shift started most noticeably with Unforgiven, which I do regard as an excellent movie, but through the rest of the '90s and up to the present, Clint has left me dissatisfied with movies like True Crime and Bloodwork. Even the wonderfully filmed Bridges of Madison County left me uneasy with its ambiguous moral lesson.
  Mystic River is a low point. It starts out well, with deep characterization and gripping emotions, but it fails to deliver what viewers want: resolution. Or are we supposed to be satisfied with an ending that makes right and wrong relative? That what happens to Tim Robbins' character is karmic destiny? I left the theater appalled at the lack of justice in the story. Am I being unrealistic? Don't we all strive for justice and are not satisfied without it?
  Considering the socio-political leanings of actors Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, and to some degree Kevin Bacon, this was probably a fitting vehicle for their worldview.
  
  
• What is the premise?
  By A1GR7XTYLXJ8P7 on 2004-01-30
  Any time I watch a movie or read a book, or anaylyze a plot of any kind, the first thing I focus on is its premise: what is it about? why was it written/ made? From the answer to that question flows the next questions: is the premise worth a whole book or movie? and did the movie/ book present the premise in an interesting way? By looking at any story thru this primer, I determine the worth of that story, as I suspect does a lot of people out there.

  What bogged me down about Mystic River is that I could detect no central premise. I coudl clearly see the effort and emotion of the actors, and appreciated the tragedies that brought about the conflict of the storyline. However, the movie (I have not read the book) has no premise -- no basic message, no founding block that holds the pieces together. The story seems to simply 'be' -- it had no point. So the tragedies happen, and so one of the main characters dies. But, so what? How does one tragedy connect to the other in a meaningful way? How does the result, the wrongful death, justify an entire story?

  One of the reviewers suggests that the ending was left deliberately vague. But I contend that such a move, except for perhaps a mystery sequel, has no place for a story of 'integrity.' An honest and talented storyteller has a duty to its audience to bring about a complete conclusion, to take a stand, to defend a position. At the very least, the storyteller should challenge the audience to the conflict posed by the central premise of his story. The only burning question in my head after watching Mystic River was: what the hell was this about?

  Perhaps its a difference in philosophies, but I believe the presence of a central premise critical to a good story. In this sense, Mystic River clearly lacked any meaningful premise. I agree that the acting was stellar, the environment perfectly gloomy and the tragedies heart-felt, but these are only pieces of a whole puzzle. Without the foundation, the pieces can only do so much.
  
  

• Exhausting
  By A3PEQM096UP0PD on 2004-03-08
  The first ten minuets of this movie was very promising, but then it seemed to lose dirction and became inconsistent. Too much was left unexplored while other parts were highlighted for no reason such as, "why did Tim Robbins feel like he needed to lie about his injuries?" It didn't make any sense.
  Although the cast was made up of very fine actors including Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Laurence Fishborne, Kevin Bacon, and Laura Linney I don't think Clint Eastwood directed them very well, for instance, Sean Penn was very emotional in some devastating scenes but stone-faced in others that are just as emotional for example when he went to the morgue to identify his daughter, up to this point he didn't know for sure if it was her who had died....
  Marcia Gay Harden's acting seemed very one dimentional, IMO it would have been interesting to see Laura Linney switch roles with her. Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishbourn were very good. My biggest problem with this movie was the ending, it seemed like they just threw an explanation at you and expected you to buy it even though it didn't make any sense. Not a movie for those who are logical.
  
  
• DIDN'T GET THERE!
  By A12ER3YIB75RLT on 2004-03-19
  I saw this a few months ago with my movie buddie, and we both felt that Sean Penn was just terrible, completly overacting, and Tim Robbins character was just too pathetic. the movie just kept missing what it was or what it should have been trying to accomplish. It absolutely stuns me that people liked it and gave it all those awards and missed out on the the wonderfullness of "Lost in Translation" and Bill Murray's oscar winning performance. I even forgot myself and thought he was sexy for a few brief moments. anyways i dont think "mystic river" DESERVED ANYTHING.
  
  

• Million Dollar Baby (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)
• Road to Perdition (Widescreen Edition)
• 21 Grams
• Collateral (Two-Disc Special Edition)
• Sleepers