When Bad Things Happen to Bad People

Rating: 6/10 (4 October 2008)

Director Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" is a well-performed, but ugly and disturbing film. When it opens, the characters who grow up to be Sean Penn (as Jimmy Markum), Tim Robbins (as Dave Boyle), and Kevin Bacon (as Sean Devine) are pre-teenage boys. Young "Dave" is abducted, after the three play hockey on a Massachusetts street. First of all, the actors playing young "Jimmy" (Jason Kelly) and "Sean" (Connor Paolo) seem to be reversed; possibly, this is because Mr. Bacon's character's name is also Mr. Penn's first name? Secondly, the confusing abduction is of a sexual nature; later, when the story temporarily becomes an intriguing drama, this is clarified. By the third act, the film has fallen apart.
****** Mystic River (2003) Clint Eastwood ~ Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon