Mystic River review

Jimmy: How long? 
Whitey Powers: How long what? 
Jimmy: How long till you catch my daughter's killer? I need to know. 

Director: Clint Eastwood
(2003)

A film like Mystic River shouldn’t be an enjoyable experience. At its core, the subject matter of loss, grief and child abuse paint an impossibly bleak tone. Surrounding it, 3 excellent performances that expertly detail the pain these themes can cause. For the most part director Clint Eastwood handles Mystic River excellently, creating a film that stays with the viewer for many weeks after being seen.

Mystic river centres on 3 friends, Sean, Dave and Jimmy, it begins with the trio as children playing hockey in the street. Dave gets abducted and abused by 2 men posing as police officers, an act that traumatizes him deeply. An early scene that has stuck with me is that of his parents pulling down his bedroom blind; almost stating that the abuse that Dave has suffered should be out of sight and out of mind in order for it to get better. We transition to the 3 characters in their adult years, no longer the tightly knit group they used to be. Jimmy (Sean Penn) is a shop keeping family man, Sean (Kevin Bacon) is a police detective and Dave (Tim Robbins) has a son. They become reunited after Jimmy’s daughter is murdered, and we witness how these characters handle the situation as the hunt for the killer begins.

Mystic River succeeds in part thanks to terrific performances from its 3 leads. Kevin bacon plays his role well, bouncing witty dialogue off his partner Whitley (Laurence Fishbourne). Like almost all of the characters in Mystic River, he is suffering from loss in the form of his wife, who frequently calls but never speaks. Tim Robbins is excellent as Dave Boyle, showing the trauma of his childhood has had serious implications on his adult life. Robbins does so with delicacy, never overblown but constantly nuanced, a terrific show that won him a well deserved Oscar.  Much like Robbins, Sean Penn is also excellent. Loss isn’t new to him, but the loss of his favourite daughter Katie (Emmy Rossum) shatters him. Penn captures a man whose world has collapsed to a tee developing Jimmy’s desperation perfectly.

Beyond the brilliance of the performances, Mystic River sustains itself not only as a drama, but as a murder mystery too. As Sean and Whitley search for answers, so too does the audience. Delicate clues strewn in forgettable pieces of dialogue, characters with ever changing alibi’s and guilty consciences give the viewer something to chew on while being mesmerised by quality performances. This mystery storyline, running parallel to jimmy’s personal search for answers builds up to a sensational finish. The strands intertwine, perfectly edited to show the breaking points of the characters. In the hands of a lesser director and cast this scene could have fallen to pieces. Instead it successfully delivers a powerful knockout blow.

While mystic river gets a great deal of things correct, it also has some issues; poor dialogue being the most notable. It’s generally solid stuff from Brian Helgeland, but 3 or 4 times becomes pretentiously laughable. While this may seem few and far between, these dire exchanges damage the serious tone significantly enough to hurt the overall quality of the film. Sean Penn is oddly at the heart of the worst scene in the film, when he’s informed that his daughter is dead. His melodramatic screams are laughable as half a dozen police officers hold him back. This scene should resonate with emotion; it is the starting point to his life plunging into desperation and sadness after all. Still, its flaws can’t detract from the fact that this is another excellent output from Clint Eastwood. Part drama, part mystery thriller, mystic river is riveting from beginning to end.

8