Mystic River (2003)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Clint Eastwood

Writers (WGA):

Dennis Lehane (novel)
Brian Helgeland (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 October 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

We bury our sins, we wash them clean.

Plot:

With a childhood tragedy that overshadowed their lives, three men are reunited by circumstance when one loses a daughter.

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Police | Sexual Abuse | Childhood Friend | Gun

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 41 wins & 64 nominations

Cast

Sean Penn	...	Jimmy Markum
Tim Robbins	...	Dave Boyle
Kevin Bacon	...	Sean Devine
Laurence Fishburne	...	Sgt. Whitey Powers
Marcia Gay Harden	...	Celeste Boyle
Laura Linney	...	Annabeth Markum
Kevin Chapman	...	Val Savage
Tom Guiry	...	Brendan Harris (as Thomas Guiry)
Emmy Rossum	...	Katie Markum
Spencer Treat Clark	...	Silent Ray Harris
Andrew Mackin	...	John O'Shea
Adam Nelson	...	Nick Savage
Robert Wahlberg	...	Kevin Savage
Jenny O'Hara	...	Esther Harris
John Doman	...	Driver

MPAA:

Rated R for language and violence.

Runtime:

137 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Malaysia:18PL | Malaysia:U (cut) | India:A | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Brazil:16 | Canada:14A | Chile:14 | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:16 (bw) | Italy:T | Japan:PG-12 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Philippines:R-13 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #39873)

Filming Locations:

Bear dens, Long Crouch Woods, Franklin Park, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Eli Wallach appears uncredited as a liquor store owner. This is the first time he has worked on a film with Clint Eastwood since the two of them starred in Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In early street scenes, set in the '70s, there's a "no trucking" sign on a pole that employs the red circle with the line through it. These signs didn't come into use in the U.S. until the 1980s.

Quotes:

Jimmy Markum: Admit what you did.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Mystic River: From Page to Screen (2004) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Cosmo

The ties that bind - for the good, the bad, and the in-between.

Three young friends play in the Boston street. They start to misbehave and a car approaches and a man climbs out looking like a cop, acting like a cop and seeming to have police ID. He beckons one boy over. He says they are going to take the boy somewhere (home maybe?) - the others say nothing and look on, glad it isn't them.

However the man is not a cop, he is a child molester/sadist and has taken him to rape and quite possibly later murder. However, several horrific days later, the boy escapes to freedom - nevertheless what happened to him and the two others will never leave them. It marks every day of the rest of their lives: and for Dave (the kidnapped boy) the wounds run very deep in to his flesh.

I am frightened of saying it, but Clint Eastwood is now America's best director: and not only that, he is one of the bravest. This is not the most obvious film. Dark, mean and giving little security blanket to hang on to. Thankfully he has assembled the best cast anyone could ask for and all three co-leads (the three street boys that go on to be men - Sean Penn (Jimmy), Tim Robins (Dave) and Kevin Bacon (Sean)) are excellent. Also worth a mention is Laurence Fishburne as a laconic black cop with a firm but fair attitude.

This film is not really much about women nor is it flattering to them. The later actions of Dave's wife (Marcia Gay Harden) make little sense on any level unless clues lie on unfilmed pages of the Dennis Lehane novel. Further discussion of it would be a spoiler.

The plot could (falsely) read as a whodunit or thriller: Jimmy's (an ex-con who now runs an convenience store) daughter is murdered and two main suspects quickly emerge. A boyfriend who was about to elope with her and the former abused boy Dave who had seen the girl behaving slightly wildly in a bar on the night she was killed. To make things worse Dave had come home late with a stab wound from that very night - he was "stabbed by a mugger," so he says, but the cover story makes no sense.

To complicate things further Sean (Bacon) is now a cop on this very case with female problems of his own. Thankfully they are mostly off screen because this film has enough problems for several movies. He is no longer open friends with Jimmy, but clearly he is viewed as more than just an ex-con trying to make good.

People that have read the book say that it remains true to its pages and that maybe is the reason why things happen slowly and the end is not an absolute full stop. The thriller part of exercise creaks like an old door because we have to believe that the Dave incident was a giant coincidence or he was - somehow - involved. And if so, why?

I was intrigued as to why the three central characters should stay loyal to the area. What keeps them? Especially Dave who everyone views as damaged goods and not a crime victim. Even his own wife. As I said before, Jimmy runs a store (where did he get the money - from crime?) but has a criminal past and maybe even a criminal future if some of the people he is around are anything to go by. This is not a film that believes in total revelation.

I am also puzzled by when the "present day" is meant to be. There is confusion about whose blood was found in a certain place which would have been solved easily by DNA examination. They talk only of blood groups.Hmmm...

Despite its many faults this is serious and skillful film making and while I agree with another reviewer - that television does this kind of the thing better - that isn't to say that this isn't a welcome addition to the cannon of believable (in outline form) street drama involving imperfect people trying to make the best of things in very difficult circumstances.