Play Mystic for Me

Rating: 3/10 (6 April 2013)

Clint Eastwood's dreary and convoluted adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel is a vastly over-rated film. The framing device doesn't really explain the characters; it's used for an ominous effect. The cinematographer, costume designer and set decorator never heard of red or yellow; everyone and everything is blue or gray. Sean Penn, terrific in Carlito's Way, Dead Man Walking, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Falcon and the Snowman, won the Oscar for his performance, but it feels perfunctory. The ultimate revelation regarding who killed Penn's daughter and why is out of left field, unconvincing and anti climactic and why doesn't Tim Robbins' character confess to his boyhood chum (Penn) that he didn't kill his daughter, but rather the pederast who was assaulting a boy in a car on the same night Penn's daughter was planning to run away with her boyfriend who it turns out was fathered by Penn. Got that? The Boston accents vary, and Marcia Gay Harden carries on like a junkie looking for a fix. Mystic River, over 2 hours long, makes me wish for simple, unpretentious trash like Clint's directorial debut, Play Misty for Me with a truly classic over the top performance by Jessica Walter.