Scum in haute couture is still scum

Rating: 3/10 (4 July 2004)

Mystic River has two large pluses. One, it is beautifully produced. I've rarely seen such wonderful camera work, lighting, and music. Mystic River is lovely to watch. Two, it is beautifully acted. Sean Penn (who looks more like DeNiro all the time) rules the screen. I don't follow Penn particularly, but this is the finest performance I've ever seen from him. Laura Linney's supporting performance is excellent, as are several others. Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, and Marcia Gay Harden were adequate, though all have done better work, and their considerable talents appear to have been limited by Eastwood's direction.
But Mystic River's two large pluses don't come close to outweighing its one gaping minus: the ending shows its characters to be utterly amoral. The fate of Dave Boyle -- who, it turns out, is the most moral person in this bunch -- is tragic and completely unnecessary. Yet Sean the cop lets it go, Jimmy's wife talks Jimmy out of his brief qualms over what he did, and Jimmy lets himself be persuaded. All three of them seem to believe that The Horrible Incident From The Boys' Childhood somehow entitles Jimmy to do what he did to Dave, entitles Jimmy's wife and Sean to abet it, and entitles all three of them to leave Dave's wife and son in agonized limbo over his fate. Jimmy is the only one with any remorse at all ... but a good night's sleep seems to get him comfortably over it.
There isn't anything to be learned from Mystic River. There's no moral, there's no useful lesson, there's no insight into the human condition. My tolerance for artistic expression and the portrayal of human depravity is wider than that of nearly anyone I know, but this film is repugnant. Why did I spend my time and money to watch characters who inspire me only to protect civilization by locking them up and throwing away the key? Why did any of the people involved in this movie spend THEIR time making it?
Mystic River is scum, and dressing it up with good acting and production values doesn't make it beautiful. It just makes it scum in haute couture.