Mystic River: Darkness, Depth, and Despair

Rating: 9/10 (1 July 2010)

Mystic River is a film. Mystic River is directed by Clint Eastwood. Mystic River stars Sean Penn. Yeah, I was always gonna love this one...
After the brutal murder of nineteen year old Katie, her ex-con cum businessman father Jimmy becomes reunited with childhood friends Sean, one of the detectives investigating, and Dave, one of the last people to have seen her alive. The disbanded trio are each haunted by a childhood trauma, the after-effects of which hang ominously over their shared modern horror.
We begin with the aforementioned trauma, its unfolding simplistic yet harrowing. Almost before we have time to react, we find ourselves in the modern day, being introduced gradually to the grown up alternatives to the children we have just left behind, seeing their lives and what they have become. It's not long before what eventually transpire to be the highlights of the film make themselves abundantly clear: the concomitant undercurrent of darkness to every scene; the gloriously austere, subtle, almost incidental performance of Robbins; the characteristically exquisite excellence of Penn. The primary plot, that of the murder mystery, is nothing exceptionally compelling in itself, the film's appeal lying rather in those involved. The question of culpability takes a backseat, Eastwood trading the tension he could create for a wonderful depth and complexity of character which sets his film apart from the other less interesting displays of cheap fast-food-film which one despairingly finds throttling the genre. Under Eastwood's firm grip, the very fine script is guided to a perfect fulfillment of its potential, the ugly dankness of his more recent works rife within the film. The performances are nothing short of amazing, each actor bringing memorable elements to the film and not a single one of them out of step. The film's sole flaw is that Eastwood has done better. If almost anyone but he had made this, it would be career defining.
Abound with astounding performances, darkness, depth, and despair, Mystic River is yet another medal of honour on the lapel that is Eastwood's career. An entertaining, if not always comfortable, viewing experience, it is not to be missed.