Three men suffer the effects of the childhood trauma of one of them

Rating: 9/10 (14 November 2007)

Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon are three men who have known each other since childhood in "Mystic River," a 2003 film directed by Clint Eastwood and also starring Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney. When Jimmy, Sean, and Dave were boys, they were approached by a plainclothes policeman and admonished for writing in a cement sidewalk - the cop demands that they get into the car. One boy, Dave, does, and the two others watch the car go down the street. Dave is held in a cave-like room and repeatedly molested until he manages to escape. From then on, he goes through the motions of life, deeply disturbed, not dead and not alive. Jimmy's guilt and self-hatred drives him to live on crime's edge; and Sean, trying to make the world right, joins the police department, though his personal life is in ruins. When Jimmy's 19-year-old daughter is brutally murdered, the three men are re-united, as Sean is now a detective. The results are tragic.
This is one of the most brilliantly acted, directed, and staggering films ever made; were it not for an unnecessarily-prolonged ending, I would have given it a 10. There is no doubt that, while he lacks the versatility and movie star aura of Johnny Depp, Sean Penn has emerged as one of our greatest American actors, giving an unforgettable performance of a tough guy crazed by grief. At times, as Jimmy controls his anger, we can literally feel him seething inside. A remarkable performance. And he's not alone. Tim Robbins delivers a characterization that is beyond shattering, fully capturing a man damaged in childhood. The brilliant script by Brian Helgeland doesn't have to tell we baby boomers and we Catholics what can easily be surmised - Dave came home to his family, they probably never spoke about what he endured, and he never got the help he needed. Kevin Bacon has the least showy role but he is no less wonderful as his character, Sean, tries to cope with a horrible case and his wife who has left him and now calls him but keeps silent on the phone. Like the childhood incident, her silence is a constant reminder of a life he lost.
Marcia Gay Harden, as Dave's wife, is phenomenal as a confused, terrified woman who is totally unable to understand the man she married as he unravels. Laura Linney is Jimmy's wife whose character develops as the film goes along. She starts out as sweet and supportive; later, we see that she is a perfect match for Jimmy. There is no performance here that isn't Oscar-worthy. I should add - the hardest accents to do and sound believable are the New York and Boston accents. You can easily believe that every single actor in this production is Boston born and bred.
Clint Eastwood has proved himself a first-class director and also a man who is attracted to tough material. The Boston atmosphere and depiction of these lower middle-class characters, from one who lived there and knows these people, is perfection, and the images he leaves us with are haunting. The problem - which is the same problem Eastwood had in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" - is that he can't seem to end it. The film continues past several scenes that would have made stunning endings.
"Mystic River" is a must-see. Warning: it won't leave you, not for a long, long time.