Mystic River the Shakespearean tragedy

Rating: 7/10 (2 February 2008)

I saw this movie a while ago and just now, while thinking about it, it reminds me of so many of Shakespeare's tragedies. Something bad happens to someone and they become a victim. That victim grows up and something worse happens and now the victim is the suspect but no one knows the true heroic deeds and nature of the once victim until its too late.
The film stars Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. They were childhood friends and something horrific happens and the grow up and grown apart. Years later, as adults, they all have different roles. Sean Penn is now the neighborhood go to guy who is a little shady but nothing to serious. Yet everyone knows that he is the guy you can rely on to solve neighborhood disputes. Tim Robbins is now the strange guy that people avoid but are cordial to when they see him on the streets. No one wants to talk to him (as he was once a victim himself as a child). He is married to Marcia Gay Harden who loves him (but not unconditionally) and is a little unease by him. Kevin Bacon is now a detective and has been completely removed from the scene, but an event happens that brings him back in touch with his old childhood friends.
So tragedy strikes and it becomes a race between street justice and official justice. People become short-tempered. They want to know, right now who did it. They do not want to wait for an official investigation so they start their own. The problem with street justice is that it doesn't require any evidence, just suspicion and like all Shakespearean tragedies a little bit of information becomes an extremely dangerous thing. Lots of little things play out, like the disloyalty of one wife, another wife egging her husband on ala Lady McBeth. Daughters not permitting to date into certain families ala Romeo and Juliet. And in the end, everyone change and none of it for the better. Jealousy is a hungry goddess and in this film, it is feed a lot and is the main culprit. Plus it's interesting on how the mind would take a single nugget of info and totally self-destruct and turn something that isn't true, into fact. And once your mind is set to that something is a fact then the truth sounds like a lie.
This is a film worthy to watch and it leads to discussion. The film is dark; there is no joy in it, but its great to see how things can spiral out of control. Tragedy muddles the mind and everyone's mind is muddle in this film. I give this film a 7 out of 10. You have seen this before, although this film does a great job of it, but it's not a film that will amaze you. And 7 is a great rating for a simple drama.