Mystic River Review
by David N. Butterworth (dnb AT dca DOT net)November 13th, 2003
MYSTIC RIVER
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2003 David N. Butterworth
*** (out of ****)
Dennis Lehane's best selling novel is brought to the big screen in gripping fashion by director Clint Eastwood, screenwriter Brian Helgeland ("L.A. Confidential"), and an impressive roster of big name stars that include Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laurence Fishburne. Penn, Robbins, and Bacon play three childhood friends growing up in the blue collar Flats section of Boston who suffered a traumatic experience in their youth (Robbins' character was kidnapped by a pair of child molesters posing as cops but escaped after four days of physical and mental abuse). The friends, who to this day struggle with that incident's demons, are reunited 25 years later when the 19-year-old daughter of one, ex-con Jimmy Marcum (Penn), who now runs a convenience store, is found murdered. Robbins plays the dysfunctional, booze-addicted handyman Dave Boyle and Bacon is Sean Devine, a homicide detective assigned to the case (Fishburne plays his partner Whitey Powers--I particularly enjoyed his performance). As you would expect from someone with Eastwood's credentials, "Mystic River" is meticulously crafted from start to finish and, as you would also expect from the principals involved, impeccably acted across this board. This powerful and disturbing drama is something of a change of pace for the 73-year-old filmmaker (less stagey, maybe; more down home and "serious") yet he proves himself every bit as capable of handing the material here as he does with his more typical fare--"Blood Work," "Space Cowboys," "True Crime." The fun (if you can call it that, since "Mystic River" is emotionally draining for most of the time) of watching the film is having everything, seemingly, handed to you on a plate and then, as the film climaxes, having the plate snatched away from you. "Mystic River" is never showy, just solid storytelling.
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David N. Butterworth
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