Not Oscar-worthy

Rating: 4/10 (2 July 2014)

I saw Mystic River with high expectations, and was hugely disappointed. The reviews and ratings are generally far too high for this movie, which does not deliver on the potential it had. I have not read the book, so I don't know how accurately the story is depicted, but the movie in my opinion is faulty enough all on its own.
Mystic River bases its story on a "twist", which does not even happen. The entire film keeps you guessing; about the who, the why, and the what. It builds confusion and uncertainty within you, which is what I liked about it. Hence, I was ready for a grand ending to solve everything -- which never came. The ending absolutely destroyed the potential the story could have capitalized on. It's almost as if everything leading up to it did not matter, and you just wasted two hours of your life.
As a movie, Mystic River is still watchable, if you can enjoy it without thinking too much. I myself am more of a thinker, and completely over-thinking the possibilities this movie did not deliver on ruined the experience for me. I cannot fathom how it got nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing. I suppose it plays on a theme of "sometimes the answer is just an accident", but I couldn't accept that as a valid conclusion.
There are other faults, too, as the movie is riddled with clichés, and it seemed that the characters' reasoning throughout was rather implausible and incoherent. In all it was enjoyable for give or take 60 minutes. . . just not consecutive ones.
Unless this movie is trying to teach that sometimes something that seems so massive and complex can in reality be a small, unrelated and inexplicable mistake, I shall maintain that the writing, with that ending, was not even in the ballpark of Oscar-brilliance.
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By the way, could someone explain why Sean, a cop, did not arrest Jimmy, after he found out what happened to Dave?