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Sunday, 18 July 2004 |
  Sean, Jimmy and Dave are 11 year old friends growing up in the suburbs of Boston, playing hockey in the street. One day, Dave is taken away by some police officers for writing in a section of wet cement. The problem is, these are not actually police officers, but pedophiles who keep him in a basement for four days until he manages to escape.
Jump twenty plus years ahead and Sean (Kevin Bacon) is now a detective for the Massachusetts State Police, Jimmy (Sean Penn) is married with three daughters and owns a small neighborhood grocery store, and Dave (Tim Robbins) is married with a son and seems to still be struggling with the trauma he suffered as a child. At first it appears the three old friends have lost contact, but when the car of Jimmy's oldest daughter is found with a bullet hole in the windshield and blood in the interior, it gradually becomes apparent the three men still have significant connections to each other.
For roughly an hour and fifty minutes I found myself increasingly thrilled with how tactfully and originally this story, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane and adopted for the screen by Brian Helgeland (A Knight's Tale) was written. I was thoroughly fascinated as I watched one character after another begin to suspect who the killer was and by the quite unexpected, complete change in the perception of one of the main characters. This was one of the most textured and subtlely complex stories I had seen on screen in quite some time.
Everything about this film was succeeding on so many levels, The acting was outstanding throughout. Sean Penn (in an Oscar winning role) was wonderfully effective with the strangely mysterious character of Jimmy. Tim Robbins (who also won a supporting Oscar) was completely in character as the development arrested Dave. Laura Linney was wonderfully understated and warm as Jimmy's wife, and Marcia Gay Harden as Dave's wife who, with her own apparent lack of intelligence, seemed to be exactly the type of woman who would be married to Dave.
So, it was profoundly disappointing when, in the last 20 minutes, the film seemed to almost completely fall apart. It is more than just the change of direction the story takes, but the impact of that change, which causes its destruction. What had been primarily a stimulating character study suddenly turned into little more than a murder mystery with a surprise ending. All that seemed to have meaning up to that moment was made nearly pointless in favor of a bit of shock. On a second viewing, all I found interesting the first time around was lost as I was more aware of the manipulation the story was imposing on the viewer.
Clint Eastwood has once again shown his skill as a director. The environment he creates is mysterious and brooding. I can't help but see a strong influence by Italian Director Sergio Leone, who gave Eastwood his start in film 40 years ago. Leone was a master at telling a story through what is not said as much as what is said and Eastwood has continued that style here. What lets him down is the story, which would have been so much more effective had it remained true to itself. Still, Mystic River is well worth seeing for the vast majority that does work in it.
Starring: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney.
Director: Clint Eastwood
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Running Time: 137 minutes
Release: 2003
Reviewer: John Rice |
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