By Kit Bowen
Story
Based on the best-selling novel by Dennis Lehane,
Mystic River is full of characters wrought with heavy emotions--and burdens. Yet, it is also a fairly simplistic murder mystery. Three 13-year old boys, Jimmy, Sean and Dave, are playing on a street in a tough Boston neighborhood when two pedophiles pretending to be cops grab Dave and take him away. In that moment, all three lives are irrevocably changed. Jimmy (
Sean Penn) grew up as tough as his neighborhood, doing time for robbery but finally settling into a comfortable family life with his wife, Annabeth (
Laura Linney). Sean (
Kevin Bacon) went on to become a cop but his personal life is in a shambles and he is estranged from his wife. Dave (
Tim Robbins) has never been able to face his demons, despite being a loving father and husband to Celeste (
Marcia Gay Harden). Now, 25 years later, tragedy brings them together once again. Jimmy's 19-year-old daughter is found murdered and while Sean is assigned to the case with his partner Whitey (
Laurence Fishburne), Jimmy seeks his own vigilante investigation with the local hoods--and Dave emerges as a prime suspect. As the mystery is unraveled, all are pulled closer toward an abyss that will force them to face their true selves--and will mark them as irrevocably as the past itself has tainted their lives.
Acting
This is one of those dream scripts serious actors simply go gaga over--and the high-quality ensemble in
Mystic River does their jobs superbly. To pinpoint the best performance of the bunch, however, is virtually impossible--and the Academy may have a tough time making the same distinction, as there is surely going to be a nomination or two coming from this film.
Penn as the emotionally charged Jimmy stands out a little ahead of the rest, with his fury resonating throughout the film.
Robbins' ultra-vulnerable Dave is also a remarkable study of a soul completely wounded by the horrors he has experienced.
Linney and
Harden, too, are excellent as the spouses;
Linney as Annabeth is a strong, defiant mother whose only impetus is to protect those she loves, while
Harden, in contrast, is meek and unsure as Celeste, faced with the dilemma of showing faith and loyalty to her husband while at the same time being convinced he committed the murder. All the performances will quite literally blow your socks off.
Direction
With all its excellent acting,
Mystic River has the added benefit of being helmed by director
Clint Eastwood, who has enormous talent behind the camera. He likes his films to simmer; his
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Oscar-winning
Unforgiven are two examples.
Mystic River is beautifully put together, with lingering shots of Boston neighborhoods and the people who live in them. He doesn't move the camera much, keeps things steady but knows when to pull in or pull out as the drama escalates (an aerial shot of an anguished Jimmy being held back by several policeman after he discovers his daughter's body shakes you to the core). Still, there are some problems with this slow-burn technique in that sometimes things should move along rather than stand still. Eastwood seems also to have had trouble finding the ending. After a pivotal, powerful, climactic scene with Jimmy and Sean discussing Dave's kidnapping 25 years ago and its effect on all their lives,
Eastwood tacks on a few more final scenes of the men tying up loose ends, resolving feelings with each other and their wives--and then going to watch a
parade. It's a minor point compared to the quality of the rest of the film, but it still leaves things on an anti-climactic note.