Another lesson of life from Clint Eastwood

Rating: 8/10 (8 July 2013)

It's not necessary to hope for unpredictability of Clint Eastwood's movies. However, one can confidently count on a harrowing drama, bent fates of heroes, high quality acting and tragic happy ending. Recognizable and unchanging Eastwood's style.
«Mystic River» - is exception. It is one more harsh and thorny drama with the deeply tragic storyline with the broken and tragic character's fates, involved in its center. Clint Eastwood, like the all- seeing and understanding wise man, learning the life and all of it's, even the most inaccessible and unbelievably cruel sides, he opens to us the most dramatic, the most hysterical and acute-social life scenarios through his cinema works. He with peculiar to him filigree psychological thoroughness, demonstrates to the audience the multifaceted gallery of human images, characters, vices and passions. Using the most intricate and diverse circumstances and moves, he, like an experienced and talented grandmaster, makes these human figures fancifully move on the life's chessboard, provoking it's inevitable and sometimes fatal interactions and collision. Each Eastwood's Director's work is a good faith and underlying psycho-sociological survey of human nature's demonstration.
«Mystic River» - this is another variation on a burning and very touching literature's and cinema's theme: the revenge of desperate, suffocating with rage and sorrow parents for their children death. But Clint Eastwood – is a wise, extraordinarily deep and versatile director, whose movies is rarely reveal only one issue. «Mystic River» is a cruel drama about family values, friendship, and that only one raving impulse, based on too obvious conclusion, is able to trigger the irreversible act, which will tragically change the lives of several people. This is another cautionary tale from the wise man. The story about three 40- years «kids», whose ways of life are tragically separated in one moment to be crossed 30 years later under more tragic circumstances. True to himself, Clint Eastwood will never spare the audience. At first, he will achieve from us the sympathy or aching pity to his characters in all possible ways, after that will ruthlessly and cruelly crush them by all imaginable and unimaginable in its cruelty life cataclysms, and particularly poor and downtrodden by life heroes he'll kill at all. Almost like Dostoevsky.
There is no need to retell the plot of the movie. This film is necessary to watch, to form our own opinion. The psychological tension will keep us from the very first frames. But you shouldn't expect from the Eastwood's movie extremely topical action and ingenious intrigue this time. It's a detective drama, not without strings and twisted confluence of the plot, but the narrative's focus is aimed at three deformed and unfortunate fate of the main characters, their loneliness, their pain, their regret.
Acting of Eastwood's films traditionally impresses with its deep anguish, powerful and heavy influence and drama. Certainly, it is impossible not to note the performers of the main roles, received the Oscars for the «Best Actor in a Leading Role» and «the Best Actor in a Supporting Role» - Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. This are not entirely new and unexpected actors images, but, nevertheless, brilliantly and plausibly expressed. Sean Penn - in the traditional image of revolting gusty criminal «element», who imagines himself a punishing finger. Tim Robbins, at first sight, reconciled and a diligent prisoner, with a day by day looming intention to be heard and understood. And Kevin Bacon, rushing between them, made the difficult choice between professional duty in favor of the former friendship. Each of them once sat in his car and left in an unknown direction, towards their own destiny
Once again, the wise «old fox» Clint Eastwood allocated responsibilities the viewer for the verdict of the main characters actions. Once again he palmed off to us what kind of obvious, but at the same time, ambiguous ending. Clint Eastwood's movies - are not only ready instructive, full of wisdom and life lessons, stories. It they provide us with an opportunity to deal in the web of the human soul and essence, not limiting our perception imposed images and standards.