None more, than Clint's finest hour

Rating: 9/10 (3 May 2015)

I haven't seen this movie for years. I video'd it last night. Again I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a movie I had to watch to the end. It's about blind rage, an unfortunate party, and the shocking truth. Penn, who again, overacts, sort of, explodes as to the shattering and confronting news of his young daughter who's been shot and beaten to death, in a state, many fathers would not like to find their daughters. With rage consuming him, ex con Penn, ready with his ex con hitters, are out to nail anyone suspect. The story, (kind of Sleepers-ish if you can remember that one) starts off in pull no punches style with Penn as a little boy punk, who after playing street hockey, with his two mates, leads them up to a bit of no good, etching their signatures, into some concrete, that's hardening. A car pulls into frame, a middle aged guy, masquerading as a cop with his older perverted grandpa I guess, forces one of them into a car, of course the more innocent and vulnerable of the boys, gets in, where he endures a four day ordeal of kidnapping and sexual child rape by these deviates. Although this opening, is really related to what follows, it's necessary, as you'll see. Cut to the present, Penn and his mates, all grown up, are reunited by the horrible fate of Penn's murdered daughter. The vulnerable Dave played by Tim Robbins, might know or could be involved with what's happened, so we have a good thriller angle too, which kept me watching to the end, among other things. The other of Penn's friends, now grown up is played by Kevin Bacon, working the murder with a much sharper partner, a beefed up Laurence Fishburne who milks his role. It's one of many solid performances, where there are greater ones too. Laura Linney is incredible as Penn's grieving wife, but no finer performance of course here, is from Robbins, who's never acted better. He's a slow, backward, Mr Average character, with the great accent I loved, who at some moments, almost sounded like Dustin Hoffman. He cops a lot of suspicion here, and takes a bad rap in many ways. What made my eyes tear a little, was the fantastic, indisputably sad and affecting music score. Penn, is good in how he can convey many emotions of loss here. In that respect, apart from the slight shades of overacting, he's great. Marcia Gay Harden as Robbin's supportive wife had me doubtful on whether it was her, as I really thought it was Lili Taylor, but Harden gives a tour de force performance, an actress we don't see on the screen much, but should see much more of. This film is just one in a string of great Eastwood films, that have set a higher level of quality, in the Millennium, to older ones of his, and no, Bloodwork, isn't included here. Up there with Changeling, or more recently, the brilliant American Sniper, this is Eastwood's best ever. Mystic Rived, mystic to it's title, is an excellent film, superbly acted, and beautifully shot, with pedophile themes, but none a greater justice either.