Eastwood's Mystic River is Overflowing with Talent!

Rating: 9/10 (2 April 2015)

In his somber psychological study 'Mystic River', Clint Eastwood delivers a true rarity - a work of high seriousness with a laid- back, un-emphatic touch. Years after one of them was abducted and abused - although we are not shown anything, the clear implication in these early moments is that a great and irrevocable horror is about to break out - three former friends find their lives entwined again uneasily by another crime, 25 years later. The crime here is the brutal, inexplicable murder of Jimmy's (Sean Penn) 19 year-old daughter. Arriving at the crime scene and realizing the full horror of what has occurred, he unleashes a pure animal howl. The only way he knows how to survive his sorrow is to seek revenge, and demands rough justice. The vicious homicide sends the community into turmoil, reuniting the three friends in a strange series of events – Sean (Kevin Bacon) is assigned to the case as the chief investigating officer, while Dave (Tim Robbins) emerges as a likely suspect. As the trio's unavoidable attachment deepens, the true repercussions of the childhood trauma begin to crystallize and haunt – Dave's psychological makeup eerily mirrors Jimmy's deepening mental disintegration, and Sean's forced to balance his past bonds with his current investigation.
The sheer classical elegance of Eastwood's direction is a delight. He constantly finds new ways to keep the storyline moving without seeming too kitschy for a drama. The movie takes its time; the camera settles in and meditates on the characters, giving them space to reveal or conceal and in turn offers realism as a kind of grim poetry, even while managing to hook the most casual viewer right from the first frame.
But it is the subtle portrayal of the three leading men which holds Mystic River together by adding psychological weight to the revenge- driven murder mystery. Penn delivers another multi-layered performance as a man in who rage, grief and honor suffer a head-on collision. Penn is so compellingly explosive that he outdoes even the best of his earlier work as a man who has uneasily made his peace with domesticity but still has a con's instincts. Robbins blends emotional exhaustion and uncertainty of direction to form a potpourri of despair that's really heartbreaking. He underplays beautifully, giving us a morose palooka who sounds dense one minute and then weaves muddled webs of metaphor, struggling to articulate his feelings. Bacon is as reliable as ever, playing the intelligent officer who holds emotions at an arm's length. It would be criminal to overlook the key female performances, particularly Marcia Gay Harden's heartbreaking turn as a woman caught between love and disgust.
Methodical, riveting and emotionally charged; it's a story of lost innocence and a reminder that the past cannot easily be suppressed or forgotten. A tale of tragic misinterpretation, Mystic River ends with a certain amount of closure but still leaves behind an emptiness. A haunting and provocative psychological mystery!