| When
they were kids growing up together in a rough section of Boston,
Jimmy Markum (SEAN PENN), Dave Boyle
(TIM ROBBINS) and Sean Devine (KEVIN BACON) spent their days
playing stickball on the street, the way most boys did in their
blue-collar neighborhood of East Buckingham. Nothing much ever
happened in their neighborhood. That is, until Dave was forced
to take the ride that would change all of their lives forever.
Twenty-five years later, the three find themselves thrust back
together by another life altering event – the murder of Jimmy’s
19-year-old daughter. Now a cop, Sean is assigned to the case
and he and his partner (LAURENCE FISHBURNE) are charged with
unraveling the seemingly senseless crime. They must also stay
one step ahead of Jimmy, a man driven by an all consuming rage
to find his daughter’s killer. Connected to the crime by a
series of circumstances, Dave is forced to confront the demons
of his own past. Demons that threaten to destroy his marriage
and any hope he may have for a future. As the investigation
tightens around these three friends, an ominous story unfolds
that revolves around friendship, family and innocence lost
too soon. [TRAILER]
STEVEN
SNYDER'S REVIEW
“Mystic River” is a tapestry
of pain, touching upon so many different aspects of grief and sorrow
that every viewer will undoubtedly be affected by something in it.
Remembering it now, it really shouldn’t work the way it does.
There is a childhood abduction, the death of another child, the parental
grief of losing a child, the betrayal of a best friend, spouse and
family member, an estranged marriage, the mistaken murder of someone
close – the list goes on.
And, beneath these surface plot points, the depression goes even
deeper. In an existential subplot that surfaces repeatedly, director
Clint Eastwood (“Unforgiven”)
and writer Brian Helgeland (“L.A. Confidential”) pose a thesis
on the very origin of evil. Without divulging too much, they seem to be saying
that
we all live in our individual bubbles of paradise, never realizing the random,
illogical and limitless pain that passes us by on a daily basis. And when it
finally strikes, it not only affects the victim, but forever changes the existence
of those around him. The scars of despair and grief do not fade, but beget
more despair.
Not only do Eastwood, Helgeland and the film’s amazing cast pull off a
film of such palpable emotion, but they also create a crime thriller that is
fascinating to the last second. I should be writing a review today saying that “Mystic
River” did too much, and that it should have shown more restraint. While
this is partly true, it is still an admirable accomplishment.
One must be careful not to give away this film’s plot, but the story
begins with Jimmy (Sean Penn), Dave (Tim Robbins) and Sean (Kevin Bacon) as
children
in Boston. They are playing in their neighborhood when a car approaches, takes
Dave away and puts events into motion that ensure none of these children will
ever be the same again. Eastwood shows Dave locked in a dank cell, obviously
held by pedophiles, and then his panicked escapes through a wooded area (a
sequence that is repeated throughout the movie).
The story flashes forward a few decades, and shows these men as adults. Dave
is married, but bears the mark of his childhood trauma on his sleeve. Sean is
now a cop. Jimmy is married with a few daughters. When one of his girls goes
missing and her car is found with a bullet hole in a window and blood in the
interior, his worst fears are confirmed.
What follows is a movie of three different and equally powerful tangents. In
the first, Jimmy must deal with his pain, coming to grips with a sense of guilt
and an emptiness that Penn captures brilliantly in a performance existing somewhere
between reserved machismo and uncontrollable anguish.
The second story is that of Dave’s, and how Jimmy’s loss finally
gives these friends a connection that was lost on that day of the mysterious
car. Robbins, of all the actors, gives the most memorable performance, likely
because he is working with the most complex character. Dave has been scarred,
but still harbors anger and rage. He is passive, but also has an explosive
side that Robbins always hints at.
The final portion is a crime drama straight out of “Law and Order.” As
Sean investigates the disappearance of Jimmy’s daughter, he reenters the
lives of Dave and Jimmy and realizes Jimmy wants vengeance over his daughter’s
attacker. It is a race against the clock, and everyone knows it.
While the conventional murder mystery occasionally distracts from “Mystic
River’s” extraordinary emotional foundation, its inclusion makes
sense. Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, the detective story is the only
thing that allows the shocking ending to occur the way it does, merging the
various
shades of grief into an explosive finale.
“Mystic River” is much like “In The Bedroom,” the best
film of 2001. In both movies, there is the loss of a child, a longing for vengeance
and the acute pain of parents enduring their own slice of hell. “In The
Bedroom” was a quite reflection on the subsequent grief and emptiness of
these people’s lives. “Mystic River” is the jazzed up version,
made with more glitz and more flash, but always aware that just like “Bedroom,” the
story must always flow from the broken hearts of its characters.
 
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