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Mystic River - Special 3-Disc Edition Customer Reviews (31 - 33 of 82 Reviews)
A Tragedy of Shakespearean Proportions
MYSTIC RIVER is so much more than a mystery (which I don't really like at all), it's a dark, moody, melancholy, highly atmospheric character study of three Irish-American men: Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn); Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins); and Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon) in the blue collar neighborhood of East Buckingham in Boston.
The opening scene, which takes place in the past, is sheer perfection and sets the tone for the entire film. From this point on, Dave will be emotionally shattered, Sean will be detached and Jimmy will feel as though he let Dave down.
Flash forward twenty-five years and the three boys who were once so close have grown apart. Sean is now a Massachusetts homicide detective; Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a small, neighborhood grocery and has a wife and three daughters; Dave, though married, is only a shell of a man.
The incident that sets the plot of MYSTIC RIVER in motion is the brutal murder of Jimmy's eldest daughter, Katie, who, by the way, just happened to be the apple of his eye and the love of his life. The responsibility for telling Jimmy about Katie's murder falls to Sean who seems to have little sympathy for Jimmy's pain.
The initial suspect in the murder is Katie's boyfriend, Brendan Harris (Thomas Guiny), but suspicion soon shifts to Dave, who admits he saw Katie at the Black Emerald Bar the night she was murdered and who came home with blood on his clothes. As in their childhood, Jimmy, Dave and Sean are bound together in a tragedy, but this one will spiral out of control to eclipse the tragedy of their childhood.
I can't think of three actors better suited to their roles than Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon. Each one gives, perhaps, the performance of his lifetime. Bacon's performance was sympathetic, yet detached, letting us see just how far these childhood friends have drifted apart.
Tim Robbins, as the emotionally shattered and deeply troubled Dave was perfect. He makes us feel sympathy for Dave yet fear him, too.
The performance that lifts MYSTIC RIVER out of the ordinary into the extraordinary, however, is Sean Penn's as Jimmy. Penn reaches so deep inside himself that Jimmy's raw pain and grief at Katie's murder are almost unimaginable. Penn, however, never slips into melodrama, never sentimentalizes Jimmy or becomes unbelievably overwrought. The only other actors I can think of who've managed such a powerful performance are Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro and their performances, while perhaps equaling Penn's, don't surpass it.
The supporting cast was wonderful and the cinematography perfect. The rain, the swirling autumn leaves, the ominous gray skies, all added the perfect note of grimness and tragedy to this all ready tragic tale.
Although I feel MYSTIC RIVER is a masterpiece, I did feel it had a few minor flaws. Eastwood seemed to want to hit us over the head again and again with Dave's childhood tragedy and the flashbacks were both unnecessary and annoying. Also annoying was the subplot with Sean's estranged wife phoning him and not speaking. It just didn't seem to "fit." There was, I think, a surfeit of profanity. Sure, this film revolves around men, and men who use profanity, but that much? I couldn't buy it. The identity of the murderer was easy to guess, but this didn't detract from the film for me, because the film's ending was next to impossible to guess. MYSTIC RIVER is, first and foremost, a character study of three shattered lives, not a simple "whodunit." And, like some other reviewers, I just didn't "get" the denouement with Laura Linney and I didn't like it.
All in all, MYSTIC RIVER was totally different from what I expected, but I did think it was a masterpiece with strong, riveting performances from the entire cast. I would definitely recommend it highly to anyone who loves character studies and doesn't mind a very dark and tragic film. MYSTIC RIVER is one of the most powerful films I've seen in a long, long time. It is worth it to buy the DVD for Sean Penn's powerfully riveting performance alone.
NOT Eastwood's best...
...that title remains with Unforgiven.
Mystic river is a good movie, not a great one. It has a great story and great characters - with a good screenplay by Brian Helgeland, based on Dennis Lehane's book. The directing is solid, while not really bringing anything special to the film, yet pacing it prefectly in building the tension around the murder.
What is outstanding about this film is the acting. Sean Penn gives yet another inspired performance as a working class father from Boston who just lost his oldest daughter to a horrific murder. Although the scenes that most people seem to remember (and that are shown in the trailer) show his *exaggerated* response to his daughter's death, the rest of the performance is more subdued and restrained.
Tim Robbins' performance is also of note, as Penn's disturbed boyhood friend who shows up covered in blood the same night of the murder, making his frightened wife (Marcia Gay Harden) start to doubt his story and to believe that he is in fact the murderer.
The rest of the cast give solid performances in somewhat limited characters, Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne as the cops asigned to the case, and Laura Linney as Penn's second wife.
However, there are a few things about the film that rubbed me the wrong way; the whole sub-plot about Bacon's wife calling him on his cell phone and not speaking? What was that suppossed to bring to the movie? Or Linney's (apparently) sudden transformation into Lady MacBeth, telling Penn's character that he should do whatever needed to be done? Or the final parade scene?
In short, while not a great film (certainly not Eastwood's best), it's a good one worth catching, and not as bad as some other reviewers will have you believe (certainly not Mistake River!).
Still Waters do Run Deep
The strength in this movie lies in the acting. It is too rare that a cast like this is collected in one movie and a director of the caliber of Clint Eastwood solicits powerful gripping and believable performances out of each of them. This movie may have suffered from comparison on the rating scale in that I watched it back-to-back with "In America," and it did measure up to a greatest top ten list movie deserving of five stars. "In America," did.
"Mystic River," is set in blue collar working class Boston suburbs and Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Tim Robbins bring off the local accent and sense of place and attitude beautifully. Two pivotal tragedies, one that happened in the past and one in the present. In boyhood the three main characters were involved in a common event in which Robbins character was abducted. In their adult lives, tragedy befalls Sean Penn's family and the chain of events spirals out of control locking each character into a Shakespearean tragedy that seems to be out of all of their control. Sean Penn's acting is gritty and the emotional seething and need for vengeance weigh upon his character heavy. See Mystic River for no other reason than to take in Penn's performance.
There are better movies out there but you won't be disappointed by taking a swim in Eastwood's river.
--MMW
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