Mystic River shows that our "present" is affected by our "past."

Rating: Null/10 (17 March 2006)

Mystic River (2003) Mystic River is a story of three young boys, played by Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon, whose lives were affected by an unspeakable act and who were re-united as adults as a result of another unspeakable act  the murder of Sean Penn's daughter.
Mystic River shows that our "present" is affected by our "past." For example, Tim relives his past in the bedtime stories he tells his son, stories about a boy running from wolves. Tim is trying to talk about the molestation he endured, but in a roundabout way. His reference to a boy running from wolves is about himself running through the woods after he escaped from the child molesters. In his mind the molesters are wolves because of the way they attacked him. In the scene where Tim's wife Marcia Gay Harden comes home after sitting in her car "thinking about things," Tim talks to her about the wolves and vampires and how he can't trust his mind any longer. From Marcia Gay's reaction, it's as if she's hearing this reflection about Tim's childhood for the first time.
One technique that the director uses to emphasize the movie's theme is when Tim, now an adult, is walking home from a baseball game with his son, and they stop near the area where Tim was abducted by the molesters. There's a shot of Tim looking down at the sidewalk where he, Sean and Kevin wrote their names in the wet cement. At first the viewer sees the sun shining on the houses on the opposite side of the street and then the shot of Tim looking down at the sidewalk is dark and depressing. We see Tim reflecting on that moment in his mind and he has a flashback to when the child molester tells him to get in the car.
Another example of how our past affects our present is in an early scene when one of the child molesters is talking with the three boys. He makes a comment that Sean must be the "hard case" because of his attitude and the fact that he doesn't respond with "yes sir". Sean does become a hard case as an adult and even serves prison time for a crime he committed. Sean also has some thugs, Kevin Chapman, Adam Nelson and Robert Wahlberg, working for him. We see Sean giving instructions to Kevin, Adam and Robert to go and interview the friends that Emmy Rossum (his murdered daughter Katie) was with the night before.
Another technique the director uses to emphasize the theme is the dialogue that takes place in the hospital when Sean, Laura Linney, Kevin and Laurence Fishburne are talking about Emmy's last few hours. Sean and Kevin reflect on the day when Tim was abducted. Sean talks about how his life might have been different if he had gotten in the car instead of Tim. He also reflects about how he met his first wife, Emmy's mother. Sean says that if he had gotten in the car that day, he wouldn't have had the guts to meet his first wife, Emmy wouldn't have been born and she wouldn't have been murdered.
Intuitively we know that our upbringing impacts our lives as adults. To have a better appreciation for the three main characters in this film, it's important to know what happened to them during those four days of their lives as 9 or 10 year olds. Knowing that Tim was molested helps explain his backwardness and his overprotective behavior toward his son. Seeing Sean as a "punk" helps explain his life as a criminal and why he has Kevin, Adam and Robert working for him. Reflecting on Sean, Kevin and Tim's childhood does help explain their lives as adults.
In a lighthearted way, Cuba Gooding, Jar's past in Disney's Snow Dogs, has an impact on his future. Cuba does follow his father's footsteps and becomes a dentist; however, it's learning that he's inherited seven Siberian huskies and a border collie that leads him to discover his roots. His life is forever changed when he finds out that he was adopted and that his birth mother was black and his father was white.