a gripping but mixed bag /SPOILERS

Rating: Null/10 (4 April 2004)

Overall I found this movie dark, gripping and intense.
The viewer becomes not so much involved as entangled with the characters as layer upon layer of ironic tragedy and events past and present saturate their lives, thoughts and decisions.
The folding-out of the story is at first a little too fragmented, but soon levels out with a well controlled build-up. Unfortunately, concerning the "murder mystery" aspect it was disappointingly predictable from the outset that Dave was not responsible for Jimmy's daughter's death- thus, for me at least, ruling out the much talked about "twist" that he did not in fact commit the murder. And the real culprits? A rather mixed-up and unrealistic scenario there.
One subtle irony I did appreciate was the apparently inexplicable discomfort Jimmy feels near the beginning of the film when Brendan's mute brother comes into the shop tapping his hockey stick up and down- the hockey stick which we later discover was used to beat Jimmy's dead daughter. When Sean later mentions the role of the hockey stick to Jimmy, I believe it is only at this particular moment that Jimmy realizes Sean's conclusion is right- it fits with his earlier uneasy intuition- and that he has shockingly and wrongfully murdered his friend.
One other interesting irony occurs when Jimmy says to his dead daughter that he knows "in his soul" he was himself partly responsible for her death. I feel divine retribution is hinted at in a noir way by the fact the child of a man he killed ends up killing his own child?
Despite some flaws (including the ambiguous and unsatisfactory ending)I did enjoy the brooding and tense film work, locations and acting. No it wasn't Sean Penn's best effort- the crying scene on the porch with Dave was a little painful to watch- but otherwise he did well as the hardened, grieving and revengeful mobster. Tim Robbins gave possibly the best performance- the pain he carried in his face was palpable even without words or flash-backs; and Kevin Bacon gave a typical Bacon performance, rather tongue-in-cheek although offering a lighter, and thereby somewhat welcome contrast to the weightiness of the other characters.