Didn't get it

Rating: 6/10 (7 March 2004)

I've just watched the movie and couldn't make sense of the ending. Linney's character seems to change dramatically, turning into a more ruthless and (maybe) domineering person. Bacon's loses his strength, his sense of right and wrong or whatever it is called; something is missing. He also manages to make amends with his wife, but it is not very clear why and how. The line "the last time I saw Dave was 25 years ago..." sounds like a cliche. Celeste should know what happened, considering she told Johnny her suspicion, and yet it seems she's not doing anything about it. I couldn't reconstruct anything from the last scenes.
The greatest asset of this movie is actors. Tim Robbins and Marcia Gay Harden are excellent; I even wonder how critics managed to "see" Sean Penn around these two performers at their peak. Even when Penn is great in his performance of a father torn between sadness and revenge, they completely outshone him. The whole cast was very good (Fishburne, Bacon). Unfortunately, I think plot wasn't up to them.