Good but not Great

Rating: 8/10 (3 June 2011)

I had a lot of expectations from this Clint Eastwood movie, and sadly the movie falls short to my expectations, maybe a little but still falls short nevertheless.
To be honest, the movie starts well and it really grips one's fascination. One unfortunate event occurred in three boy's life and changed their lives forever when they grew old. The whole movie is centered around the murder of the daughter of one those three boys, who grew old now.
Eastwood did a good job of portraying and hence building the suspense around the movie. Performances are the biggest assets of this movie. Sean Penn as Jimmy Markum, the father of the murdered daughter was really good. He is excellent in both emotional and the intense climax scenes. Kevin Bacon, as Sean Devine, another boy amongst those three, did a good job as the investigating officer. But it was Tim Robbins as Dave Boyle, the boy to whom that actual event occurred and which changed his entire life drastically, gives the most powerful performance.
Notwithstanding those performances, the thing which maybe termed as the 'loose end' is the climax and the motive of the murder. Apart from that the movie is good and certainly worth a watch.