One of the Best

Rating: 9/10 (5 December 2013)

This movie is fantastic. If you haven't seen it, I'll have to quote something my 9th grade English teacher used to say: "Go out, and get it tonight."
Well, there aren't any Blockbusters any more. So, stay home, and illegally download it tonight.
This film has LAYERS. Like the layers of a blooming onion you get at Outback Steakhouse. This movie is DEEP.
First Layer: The superb crime mystery/thriller aspect of the movie. Who killed Katie Markum? Everyone suspects Dave, who has been acting strange and came home to Celeste at 3am covered in blood the same night Katie Markum died. But this is a Hollywood movie, so everything is not as it seems. Or is it?
Next Layer: Characters. This movie has great acting. It received Academy Awards for best actor (Sean Penn) and best supporting actor (Tim Robbins) the year it came out. Their performances are so gripping, and deal with such difficult characters, 3-dimensionally, that it would be hard to disagree with the Academy's choice. This isn't a good-vs.-evil story, with a hero cop rushing to stop a sociopathic villain. This is a story in which everyone is human, they all make choices, and those choices have consequences. Very Shakespearian.
A Deeper Layer: Philosophical/Intellectual. Like all great movies and pieces of art, this movie deals with the weighty questions of human nature. How far should a man go to avenge the death of his loved ones? How much of our lives are made up of our own choices, and how much of our lives are influenced by the choices of others? How much does fate play a role? I suppose that the movie's title, "MYSTIC RIVER" is also the strongest metaphor in the film. It can stand for many things.
Without a doubt, this film is Tragic. Tragic and Brilliant.