Drama. Mystic River tells the story of three men whose dark, interwoven history forces them to come to terms with a brutal murder on the mean streets of Boston.

---

::AMAZON REVIEWS::

Mystic River (Full Screen Edition)
During a summer in 1975, Dave Boyle and two friends, Jimmy and Sean, are playing on a sidewalk in Boston when Dave is abducted by two men and subjected to sexual abuse over a period of several days. Eventually escaping, but haunted into adulthood by his trauma, Dave becomes a primary suspect when Jimmy's daughter, Katie, is found murdered. Sean, assigned to investigate the crime, finds himself facing both demons from the past and demons in the present as the circumstances surrounding Katie's death are uncovered. "Mystic River" is a surprisingly dark movie, with a controversial denouement. It is masterfully directed, acted, shot, edited, lit and scored. It is a mostly humorless and occasionally difficult realist drama, that will undoubtedly affect most viewers emotionally in a variety of ways. The story is absorbing. "Mystic River" is a impressive achievement for those who made it and a rich, memorable experience for those who see it.

---

The River holds many secrets...
Mystic River DVD Review
2 Disc Widescreen Edition (2003)

Mystic River cleaned up and won Academy awards for Best Actor - Sean Penn, and Best Supporting Actor - Tim Robbins and was nominated for everything else you can think of. It did not, however win Best Picture. Directed by Clint Eastwood from the novel written by Dennis Lehane, Mystic River is about three childhood friends who after a tragic incident grow up to be a cop, a victim, and a suspect.

This movie can feel very slow in the pacing and action. It takes a while for events to pick up and characters to start opening up. The feel of the movie and accuracy helps set the location very well. Everything is dark and in blues like the river. The ensemble cast is a big who's who of a generation in Hollywood. Since Clint Eastwood prefers to get everything done in one or two shots, you know actors had to step up their game and that makes the performances a little more impressive.

I'm a fan of Tim Robbins, mostly because of The Shawshank Redemption. He just always finds a way to look so.......haunted. He plays a quiet, kinda crazy guy who was sexually abused as child when he was kidnapped and held prisoner in a cellar for four days. Now he's grown with a wife and child and comes home at 3 a.m. one night with blood on his hands. His facial expressions and tone of voice are so eerie. His character is a pathological liar because the time he told the truth when his friends lied, he was made into a victim. Now in any threatening situation, he lies to stay safe and it makes him even more of a suspect.

Sean Penn's daughter played by Emmy Rossum (who is beautiful and innocent as always, this was her first notable role in a big film) is found to have been murdered. Penn does a heart-breaking job screaming over and over again, "Is that my daughter in there?" Honestly, he gets it in about ten times and has to be restrained by like seven guys to avoid going to see her body where they found it. He brings out the raw emotion at the drop of a hat and his performance is very compelling.

Their other childhood friend, Kevin Bacon is one of the investigating cops along with Laurence Fishburne and they (of course) try to piece together the puzzle and find out what happened. There's a side mystery of his silent wife who calls him and says nothing which is sad but unessential to the core of the film. Bacon walking the line between victim's parent and suspect being his childhood friends is quite the feat. While they are not close any longer, under every conversation is a vast canyon of history that is addressed in subtext.

Marcia Gay Harden plays Tim Robbins's wife and stays in the background looking worried and scared most of the movie. Laura Linney plays a great grieving stepmother and makes a big character turn that comes out of left field at the end of the movie. To avoid any spoilers for those who haven't seen it, the movie really could have ended after the main action when Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon were talking in the street. But no, it continues to show more aftermath conversations and a parade. I guess it is to set up the audience choosing in their minds what happened to the characters later, but it's really so ambiguous it feels like overkill. The comparison of marital relationships from which is most loving to which is most likely to last is interestingly ironic.

This movie is good....but it just isn't THAT good. It has some beautiful individual performances but as a package, loses my interest at points. I guess the Academy and I have different standards......then again, it didn't win Best Picture now did it?

DVD Extras:

There are two featurettes, "Beneath the Surface" and "From Page to Screen" that go over the casting of the movie, production details, Eastwood's one-take style of directing, and the accuracies of where they shot the movie. The writer points out that they started shooting about a block and half away from where he wrote the book. Also the writer was very concerned that all these Hollywood actors would sound different than how he heard his characters in his head, but that they mastered their accents and characters well to his imagination. There are full-length interviews from "The Charlie Rose Show" that into detail with Clint Eastwood, Kevin Bacon, and Tim Robbins. No Sean Penn? The part of the extras I enjoyed the most was commentary with Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon. I always enjoy actor commentary the most since I have a background in acting in theatre and film myself. They break down some of the scenes and reveal a little more about motivations for why certain things were done and are just interesting to listen to if you are fans of their work. This edition also includes a complete CD soundtrack which I did not have the pleasure of checking out because the copy I had was from the library and didn't include it. Bleah!

---

annnnnnnnd i'm BACKKKKK ! (with my post-viewing review)
first, a recapping of my previous review before i had actually watched it:

hi ! ! :D how are you?!?
i haven't watched Mystic River yet... but i have my copy and am about to... (i will soon come back with a review)
i just find it funny how many negative reviews (there's good ones too!!) complain about how negative/repulsive etc. the movie is (like people were expecting some sunny tap dance musical or something with rainbows and smiley-face sparklies shooting out of every corner and orifice ... and/or funnier yet, they are appalled at how this movie didn't drastically change their lives on some sort of geo-spiritual epiphany level...
wow... what were they expecting. lol. it's a movie. lol. :D it's kind of like entertainment sometimes... lol.
(i suppose that some movies are made just for raking in money ... or who knows maybe some are even meant to drastically alter peoples lives on a geo-spiritual epiphany level ! :D lol. i own a couple of those. lol :D but who knows)
if you really want to change your life that bad maybe you could go to church :D lol
watch cartoons or something :D until recently they were pretty cheery/upbeat/colorful :D
(until the whole ren and stimpy thing kicked in)
there must be some documentaries out there about different branches of hindu islam judeo something or other religion-ism that could possibly alter your spiritual/mental paridigm... if you wanted to do that...
heck... for me the Home Alone movies changed me and my way of life forever :D and i'm not sure they were even supposed to, i just like them very much :D
myself i know when i watch a movie that it might be realistically negative occasionally...
or even disturbing. depending usually on the warnings on the back of the dvd case :D
i just think this makes for funny reading :D
at any rate... i will be back soon with my review of Mystic River ! :D
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOW!!~ as promised... back i am with my post-viewed review:

Wow. I agree!! this movie IS a little way too serious and negative/sombre/moody.
and... it's quite a bit bluish tinged, or is it just me??
there are quite a few 'blue' movies out there.
colorwise speaking.
i now understand why reviewers kept saying it was too serious or dark and soo traumatic on them
in that way.
well ~ yes this movie DOES seem to be one of those movies that takes itself a little too seriously.
it's like the director (oops would that be clint eastwood) told everyone the #1 rule of thumb was to not smile or laugh or joke ONCE thru the movie.
i think somewhere in there someone does do a quick grin or something, in a couple parts.
well i have never read the novel, so i can't judge the original source, but
i am glad i have this movie. I have tendencies to want to go back and watch it for reasons i can't explain, the atmosphere, etc. every once in a while, but
really i'm not sure what the movie takes itself so darn seriously for.
sean penn ends up playing ironically a temperamental jerk in this role, eventually.
not a bad movie. i'm just not sure what it was trying to say or if it was just supposed to be
self-righteous and 'admirable'.

---

clearer than the book
Sean Penn's acting actually makes the petty crook come alive better than in the book.
Three boys just messing around on the city streets in a poor suburb
are targeted by predatory adults. One of them gets into the car
which the policemen who aren't.
Their lives are forever changed by that one moment.
The boy who gets in and his two friends become grown ups
in a strange way:one a cop, one a crook and the other just
a struggling confused fellow who drinks way too much.
The death of the 19 year old daughter of the crook
brings out old time troubles that had been mostly forgotten,
like a murder and that time locked in the cellar.
What results is a tragedy where again
the third guys gets in another car with two predators.
Who the real killer is comes as a big surprise to everyone.

---

Overrated garbage with massive yawn factor
**Warning** Spoilers ahead.

How this pile of rubbish won so many awards is totally beyond me. How it was rated at 87% on rotten tomatoes makes me question humanity. First off, let's start with how bad of an actor Sean Penn is. I just didn't buy any of his anger. At the end when he finds out who the real killers are it doesn't phase him. He never draws you in at all which makes you not really care that his daughter dies. It doesn't help that she hardly has any screen time for us to care about her on a more direct level. Next up is the stupid B plot of Kevin Bacon's estranged wife calling him and not speaking. Really?? It added absolutely nothing other than being a sort of comic relief to the rest of what is going on. Sean Penn's gangster friends also added to the camp factor. Let's not forget the laughable monologue done by his wife at the end. Next up is how the writer underestimates the viewers' intelligence with the incredibly weak attempt at portraying Tim Robbins' character as the killer. Tim's wife in the movie was a one trick pony...quiver and grab at the neckline of her shirt. At the end we find out the two detectives on the case who have left no stone unturned never listened to the 911 tape. The worst part about the movie is that all the loose ends are tied up, and yet...the movie keeps chugging along! If you eat dessert after a meal you don't go back for extra servings of the main course. I would recommend watching this movie only if your life was at stake.

---