Thriling murder mystery movie!!

Rating: Null/10 (22 April 2012)

Before I watched this movie I had a good feeling this movie would be pretty good with the likes of Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon and Clint Eastwood as the Director. Those are some top actors along with Clint Eastwood it couldn't possible be a bad movie right? It was a suburb movie that was riveting the entire way, keeping you on your toes with who the killer is, and what is going to happen in the end.
The movie starts out with the three young friends of Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn), Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon), and Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins) playing in the streets of their neighborhood in Boston. A supposed police officer catches them writing their names in the newly poured concrete. The man takes Dave and ends up kidnapping him for 4 days sexually abusing him the entire time. Dave gets away but the three's friendship will never be the same after.
Skip 20 years ahead, Sean is a police detective whose pregnant wife left him six months ago, Jimmy is a small time gangster who owns a local store with his wife and three daughters, and Dave is married with a young son. Jimmy's nineteen year old daughter Katie is found dead one fateful night and Sean is the lead detective on the case. This is where the movie gets very interesting for me. The three friends that haven't really spoken to each other in years are all suddenly launched into a huge mess with a murder mystery gangster type thriller with the death of Jimmy's daughter.
Jimmy is on a rampage to find his daughters killer, while detective and friend Sean is trying to do the same. Mean while Dave appears to be a prime suspect when he comes home cut and bloodied the night of Katie's death. As Sean and his partner continue to uncover more and more about Katie's death, Dave continues to seem more and more like Katie's killer. He appears so much like the killer that Dave's own wife rats him out to Jimmy the town gangster who is sure to inflict revenge on Dave.
The movies ends in such a great yet horrible and dissatisfying way it's hard to say if I liked it or not. Jimmy kills Dave for presumable killing Katie, but then Sean finds the two young boys who actually did kill Katie the same night Jimmy killed Dave. Then the aftermath of this all is very awkward to me Jimmy's wife's speech calling him a King, Sean knowing Jimmy killed Dave but does nothing about it. As I said before the ending was very different and a little confusing to me but yet it was perfect for the movie on how it ended.
I think it is impossible to compare this movie to any other for myself. I can not think of any movie that comes close to this. There are a few movies that have a similar theme that you don't find out the mystery till the end. Movies like the sixth sense, the departed, Se7en and a whole lot of other movies. But Mystic River is in a class of its own. The way the movie is set and how the characters are along with the ending, nothing compares.
Two thematic techniques I thought the film utilized very well were lighting and camera zoom. I think the lighting was very important; it was a dark and gloomy movie so you can't have tons of sunshine or bright colors all around the set. Throughout the movie the lighting stayed very dark and gloomy to following along with the story line. Also the camera zoom had a big effect on the movie as well. As with any movie certain shoots were up close and others were shot from a distance. This is what the director has to determine when shooting the entire film. Do you shoot this scene up close to capture the emotion of the actors or do you shoot from a distance to get a good picture of what is happening around the actors. It may seem like a easy thing to accomplish but I would argue it is harder then it might seem. I think these two elements are crucial for mystery movies like the Mystic River. You have to be able to see actor's emotions when they are being shown. You can't be at a distance when Sean Penn is crying over his daughter's death or you will not be able to fully grasp the emotion his character is showing. If you shoot each scene up close you would not be able to see all the scenery which helps create the dark and gloomy nature of the film.
All in all it is a great movie to watch, the ending is a little suspect. But I greatly enjoyed the movie and I would recommend it to any movie watcher who enjoys this type of movie.