Great Performances Makes This Film A Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (30 September 2012)

Directed by Clint Eastwood, the mysterious drama Mystic River is based on the novel by Dennis Lehane and adapted by screenwriter Brian Helgeland. It features Sean Penn,Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon together with Laurence Fishburne,Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney.It is about three friends who grew up in working-class Boston drift apart after a terrible tragedy.Years later, brutal events reconnect them.
Set in an Irish neighborhood in Boston, Jimmy, Sean, and Dave are three childhood friends who are reunited after a brutal murder takes place. Reformed convict Jimmy Markum and his devoted wife Annabeth find out that their teenage daughter Katie has been beaten and killed. Jimmy's old friend Sean Devine is the homicide detective assigned to the case, along with partner Whitey Powers. Jimmy also gets his relatives, the Savage brothers, to conduct an investigation of their own. Jimmy and Sean both start to suspect their old pal, Dave Boyle, who lives a quiet life with his wife Celeste but harbors some disturbing secrets.
The entire cast did a phenomenal job, resisting the urge to overact too much, which is what you get for a film like this.Anchored by the exceptional acting of its strong cast particularly Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, this is a somber drama that unfolds in layers and conveys the tragedy of its story with visceral power.It works as a straight-up detective story and plot is far from being perfect.But nevertheless,the performances makes up for all its flaws.