Somber Performances + Meticulous Direction = Heartfelt Tragedy

Rating: Null/10 (8 December 2004)

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS*** "Mystic River" delicately tells a somber tale of murder, suspicion, and betrayal, in chronicling three Boston boyhood friends (Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon) who are entangled in a web of turmoil and mixed emotions proceeding the tragic slaying of the former's daughter. Their worlds have shattered since the murder, and what bond they may have developed in childhood seems to have been breached, as friends become fiends and conversations become confrontations, in the search for the killer of Jimmy Markum (Penn)'s daughter. Enduring a tormented childhood, in having been abducted and apparently reformed ("I don't know who came out of that car, but it wasn't me"), Dave Boyle (Robbins) soon becomes chiefly suspect in the murder, as his countenance and demeanor seem to indict him with such a heinous enterprise with good suspicion. Thus ensues a somber study of grievance, trust, question, and ultimately, tragedy. Eastwood's powerful, meticulous direction and study of character (from Markum, Boyle, and Devine), to their respective love interests, to those earlier sore acquaintances who might have played a hand in the murder, through adept, clever, and human dialog, and an effective darkness of setting, supplying the dismal tone of the events at hand, along with the somber, remorseful, genuine performances (particularly by Penn and Robbins), makes "Mystic River" an odyssey of the abysmal worth embarking upon. It packs an effusive emotional punch in all of its efforts, and enables the audience to become engaged by literally everything the characters undergo, in this "Mystic River" of grievance, suspicion, and repentance, in a genuine human study of even the most adjacent of subjects (best friends) enduring worlds of tragedy on their own. Though somewhat lacking a fulfilling resolution, I would give "Mystic River" high marks as being an exceedingly critical and heartfelt telling of a most somber and tragic chain of events. ***1/2 out of ****