Feel no-good movie

Rating: 4/10 (16 January 2005)

If you like to feel that life is unfair and unjust, if you like to know that there is no hope  you will like this film.
The film shows three childhood friends which share a terrible experience in the past when one of them, Dave Boyle was abducted and abused. After twenty years, the friends are going separate ways  Jimmy is an ex-con trying to stay strait, Sean is a cop on the brink of break down and Dave is a looser. After Jimmy's daughter is murdered, the friends are brought together again.
I have read Dennis Lehane's novel about a year ago and I found his narrative extremely depressing. As I was reading the book I actually could feel my serotonin levels going down. So I could not bring myself to watch the film for a long time even after the Oscars. I finally watched it on DVD and there are good and bad things about it.
What I think makes me dislike the film is that the story's moral and ethical grounds are very confusing. The story shows the world in upside-down way where the "bad guy" is glamorised and the victim is portrayed as a very unattractive person. Whatever I think about Jimmy Markum I have to admit he is quite charismatic guy, where poor Dave Boyle just looked as if he deserved anything.
In a way the film's story is similar to the "Unforgiven" rather than "Shawshank redemption". The main tag line is that you can not change anything in your life, if you are a killer, you are a killer, and if you are a victim you are a victim.
The film is actually much less depressing than a book and there are even some funny dialogues in it. But I thought that some of the story lines were not very well explained. The main example is the ending. Because in the book the author actually gives the character's thoughts behind their front there is no question of where each of them stands at the end. The end is very blackand-white and in a way calling for the "Mystic river-2". In the film, if I have not read the book before, I would not understand what Sean's position is at the end. Also it seems that Sean's character is underdeveloped and poorly explained on a whole.
The cast is what made this film worthy watching. Sean Penn did a great job, but I think that he was much deeper in the "21 grams". The best actor in the film for me was Tim Robbins. His portrait of David Boyle was almost out of this world. I applaud this actor when he can take on such an unattractive character and portray it with dignity.
The opening scene of abduction sent chills down my spine  atmosphere was so thick you could cut it with the knife. The director/camera-man work is exceptional there.
Overall  4/10