Eastwood's Directorial Masterpiece that Vividly Brings to Life the Riveting Book it was based on...

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2007)

For my money, Clint Eastwood's crowning achievement as a director, MYSTIC RIVER is his breathtaking and powerful film adaption of the equally powerful novel by Dennis Lehane that examines lost youth and other kinds of loss that sweep their way through a small Massachusetts town where everyone knows everyone. This story opens on a quiet day in Mystic River when three young boys, Jimmy, Dave, and Sean are approached by a pedophile, they force Dave into their car and he is sexually abused for several days before escaping. The story then finds these childhood friends as adults still living in the same town, though their lives have drifted away from each other somewhat. Jimmy (Sean Penn)is now a small business owner content in his 2nd marriage (Laura Linney)and raising three daughters. Dave (Tim Robbins) is also married and raising a son. Sean (Kevin Bacon) is now a Mystic River police officer whose wife left him, but likes to call him on the phone and not say anything. The three men's lives reconnect when Jimmy eldest daughter (Emmy Rossum) is brutally murdered and, as Sean investigates the crime, Dave begins to come into focus as the primary suspect. Clint Eastwood won a richly deserved Oscar for Best Director as he has incorporated rich detail in painting this intimate story of troubled small town Americana on an epic canvas and pulled remarkable performances from his hand-picked cast. Sean Penn finally won a Best Actor Oscar for his powerhouse performance and Tim Robbins' Dave earned a Supporting Actor statue. They receive rock solid support from Bacon, Linney, Marcia Gay Harden as Dave's wife, and Laurence Fishburne as Sean's partner. One of those rare and beautiful occurrences where a film turns out to be just as riveting as the book it's based on. An instant classic not to be missed.