I felt like I was watching "Crimes and Misdemeanors" minus the Woody Allen humor!

Rating: 7/10 (17 October 2003)

I went into this movie with very high expectations... maybe too high? Expecting a masterpiece of some sort. Even before seeing Mystic River I was ready to score it a perfect 10 from all the hype and high marks given to it by the critics, but all I seemed to get was "just" a descent film... not awful... but not great... thus I was disappointed.
The following are "SPOILERS" if you continue reading:
I kept expecting more... more of what I'm not quite sure. Maybe a little more... ummm... GUILT from Sean Penn's character Jimmy. The grieving was there over his daughter's death, but how about the guilt that was "planted" by the movie? That he knew in some way he had something to do with her death?!?!? We do find out that this is true... that the son of a man he had killed years ago was responsible for his daughter's death, making him ultimately responsible. And to top it off, he ends up killing the wrong guy (Tim Robbins)to boot. Some guilt was expressed... but way too little. I felt like I was watching "Crimes and Misdemeanors" minus the Woody Allen humor! So to me the anti-climatic ending of the parade squashed all guilt of the character (and I'm sure that's what Eastwood intended with the story).
Clint did a fantastic job directing... there were a few really good haunting scenes like near the end of the movie when Jimmy and Sean (Sean and Kevin) were standing in the middle of the street remembering when David (Tim) was abducted.
All the acting was first class all the way...I especially enjoyed Laurence Fishburne's performance.
However, all in all I find Mystic River to be a very good but a very unsatisfying picture... and if that's the way it's supposed to leave you it deserves a 10, but until I know that for sure I'm sticking with the 7 I gave it!