Powerful but Problematic

Rating: Null/10 (14 October 2003)

This should be a great movie. As most people and reviews have mentioned, the acting is excellent. The story is interesting, the cinematography is quite good, Eastwood's music works well... but there are numerous problems with this film, some of them serious enough to leave me fuming as I left the theater. *SPOILERS AHEAD*
1) Motivation - After spending almost the entire movie showing Sean/Bacon (and Whitey/Fishburne) methodically and doggedly looking for the murderer, suddenly, Bacon goes against his carefully developed character and appears disinterested in the investigation and happy to take care of his domestic problems.
2) What happens to Whitey/Fishburne? - Even if Sean/Bacon dropped the ball on the investigation for private reasons, what about Larry? He definitely doesn't seem to be the type to blow off the investigation, especially after all the work they had done. Since this can't be plausibly explained, he simply vanishes from the film.
3) The lips - The character of Sean/Bacon's wife may have played a larger and better role in the book, but she and those incredibly annoying lips should have been axed from the film. A sappy ending to this sub-plot too. And only one half-second after the cathartic zenith of the film, Bacon's back on his damn cell phone, the lips return... but now all is okay. Terrible directing at this point.
4) Subtle Names - The Savage Brothers. Officer Divine. Beat us over the head any harder and we'll have to sue for damages.
5) More subtlety - Yeah, yeah, Dave/Robbins is back in the car again. We get it, we get it.
6) Motivation Part II - By the end of the movie, we realize that Jimmy/Penn is just a thug, and not a particularly smart one at that. He's even got his two stereo-typical goons working for him. But we've been emotionally manipulated for two hours to feel sympathy for him. Why? This film really isn't a tragedy, as many people are claiming. We've simply been tricked.
7) Therapy - Despite obviously thinking about his situation obsessively for decades, Dave waits until late in the film to tell his wife the most important thing that ever happened to him? How long have they been married? Has he never heard of therapy? Do they not have therapy in Boston? Does that explain Pedro Martinez?
8) Two-dimensional - Dave and Celeste are ultimately pretty flat characters. Robbins does an amazing job with his role and impressed me with his range more than Penn, who seems to do his normally good acting. But he and Marcia Gay Harden really don't have a lot to work with.
9) The killer - I can't believe I'm the only person in the world who suspected early on who the guilty party was going to be. So, if that happens to you, the film is going to be less interesting. This ain't no Usual Suspects.
10) Harsh world - It's hard to talk about the ending of this movie without completely telling people what happens, but I think the "only the strong survive" message is overdone and not accomplished so much through good writing as by toying with our emotions.
This is not a bad film - it's just getting a lot of tremendous press when it has some serious problems - that's my gripe. But it has many good elements. The biggest surprise of the film was Bacon, who is not an actor I like. I thought he did quite well. And Fishburne is maybe the most enjoyable part of the film. He may not stretch himself as much as the other actors do in this particular case, but he does provide the lighter moments, and it's a film that desperately needs humor. See the movie for the acting. One should probably read the book for the story.