A wasted opportunity

Rating: 3/10 (19 July 2006)

I watched this film with high hopes for a masterpiece from such a high profile cast but was disappointed for several reasons. I won't go over the plot as several other people have done that with their own reviews but this film really makes no sense.
I am a big Clint Eastwood fan but did he not get anyone to watch a cut of this film before release to point out the plot holes? The motive for the murder is highly dubious and based on too many coincidences to really be believable. The characters are all highly unlikeable. Sean Penn's character is a petty thug. Tim Robbin's character seems unable to explain a simple concept to his soon-to-be killer such as "I didn't murder your daughter I murdered a paedophile. Please don't kill me until after I prove what I have said by taking you and your ridiculous henchmen to the place where I buried his corpse in a shallow grave to show you the evidence". Kevin Bacon's cop doesn't mind that one of his childhood friends murdered another one of his other childhood friends in a brutal error of judgement because the friend who got murdered must have had it coming after he was abducted and raped as a young boy and had turned a bit weird. Good going there Kevin (that is sarcasm by the way).
I had figured out the plot twists in this film after 30 minutes and found that I was only watching to the end in order to confirm my suspicions. I did not, however, guess that the moral of this story would be that violence is OK if you have a reason and that 2 henchmen are all that is needed to take over Boston's crime scene from the location of a small corner shop. I could also not fathom if Kevin Bacon's cop is letting Sean Penn's thug off the hook indefinitely or if the finger gun pointing action during the random parade in which everyone turns up at the same spot meant that he will get him in the end because he was smiling whilst making the gesture!? Finally, Sean Penn's wife makes a random speech at the end for no apparent reason. Those old Budweiser adverts in which the protagonist shouts "Waaassuupp???" really loudly to his friends made more sense in 30 seconds than this film did in over 2 hours. Time not well spent.