Drama with a capital D

Rating: 9/10 (15 June 2007)

In today's cinema, there are dramas and there are Dramas. A drama is often not much more than a generic term used to designate a movie which doesn't suit in any other category. For the general public, the definition for drama is so much innate that it becomes almost impossible to give it. Instead, a Drama is a movie that catches the viewer in his/her deepest depths at the point that he/she feels exactly the same feelings and the same emotions than the characters portrayed on screen. And "Mystic River" is a Drama.
Directed by Clint Eastwood, "Mystic River" tells the reunion of three childhood friends in less-than-enjoyable circumstances. The movie begins in a street from a residential neighborhood in Boston at the end of the '70s. Jimmy, Sean and Dave are playing street hockey when they decide to write their names in a part of sidewalk whose cement hasn't dried yet. However, they're caught by "policemen" and the latter bring Dave with them.
Cut to present day. Jimmy (Sean Penn) is an ex-convict, owner of a small store and father of three children. Sean (Kevin Bacon) is a divorced homicide detective. Dave (Tim Robbins), whose life dramatically changed since the car event, lives peacefully with his wife and his son.
Jimmy's oldest daughter Katie (Emmy Rossum) has been found murdered in a park. Sean is assigned to the case and his relationship with Jimmy is a factor that stimulates him even more in this sordid affair. Dave is also sympathetic to Jimmy, but several clues picked up by Sean and his partner Whitey (played by Laurence Fishburne) start to make believe that Dave could actually be a prime suspect in that affair.
The movie lays on a solid story, immaculate direction, but especially on the strength of its three main actors. Talking about that, two of them (Penn and Robbins) received an Oscar each for their performance in the film. Penn is a society rebel, shown by the sidewalk episode and his two years in jail, but he also has a heart and the sadness and the revolt that he shows after his daughter's murder are sincere.
Bacon does his job very professionally, but he's not insensitive to the fact that the murder he's investigating concerns his childhood friend. And just like Jimmy who's bruised by the murder of his daughter, Sean also has to come to terms with his own divorce.
Robbins is the most fascinating of the three. He had the bad luck of being the one taken in that car and this traumatic event is well-reflected in his face. Very often, he looks more like a beaten dog rather than a middle-aged man. Even if he's imposing physically speaking, he remains nevertheless the weakest character among those we see on the screen.
The story of "Mystic River" is adapted from the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. Such a story is unusual for a filmmaker like Clint Eastwood. And yet, it's probably his best non-Western film as a director. It all demonstrates that Eastwood is a film virtuoso, should he be in front of or behind the camera.
Even if the story is originally from Lehane, screenwriter Brian Helgeland must be credited for his faithful and skilfully successful adaptation.
The movie immaculately shows how one single event can affect so many people and, at the same time, how this event can reunite people. The story is terribly realistic and shows the fragility of child life and never attempts to restrain the impact of pedophiles on youngsters. It's very courageous from Eastwood's part.
Add to that an explosive, merely believable climax and you'll obtain a strikingly poetic and tragic, almost Shakespearian taste.
Eventually, the good old question "what if?" comes to the major characters. It's obviously a unanswerable philosophical question, but it still refers to that painful day when everything changed for three boys who were innocently playing street hockey...
"Mystic River" makes a very good development from a simple story that will finally last for over two hours.
As for the mystery of the murder of Jimmy's daughter, the investigation is imaginative and suspenseful and, as for every good mystery story, the revelation of the guilty is surprising.
But we don't fairly get interested to "whodunit" when we see the pain and the emotions of the characters. Especially the male ones. It's good to see men sharing their emotions. It's yet surprising from a director like Eastwood, who had mainly worked on macho films during the major part of his career.
"Mystic River" is an eloquent example of how the past can affect a life in the present. It's also a very courageous film about pedophilia towards young boys.