Most Powerful film I have ever seen

Rating: Null/10 (28 February 2004)

I'm the sort of person who usually judges a film before seeing it and that's what I did with Mystic River as I hated all the films Eastwood had directed since Unforgiven and A Perfect World so I wasn't expecting much from Mystic River. I happened to be in London visiting family and my uncle suggested we go and watch a film and Mystic was the only decent film was on. I didn't even know what Mystic River was actually about, only it involved the lives of three best friends but Sean Penn had made me trust this film to watch it and when I came out of the cinema I was buzzing with excitement of how good it was.
The basic storyline is three young friends are playing outside on the road, one friend spots a cemented pavement which hasn't dried up yet and they decide to engrave their names in the cement. Then out of the blue two men turn up pretending to be policemen and take one of the boys away and we shoot past four days later and they find the young boy and our only guess is he has been sexually abused and then we go on 25 years later and the three young boys are now all grown up living different lives until they are reunited by the tragic murder of Sean Penn's daughter and that's where the story kicks off but the movie is in full motion from the word go and you are pushed into these boys lives and it doesn't stop till the very end. The characterization of this film is the best that Clint Eastwood has ever tempted, not since A Perfect world have I felt so sorry for a character in the way you feel about the characters in this film especially the great Tim Robbins who is on better form than he was in The Shaw shank Redemption as is Sean Penn which has to be the greatest performance of his career and Kevin Bacon is also excellent. It's a shame that Marcia Gay Harden isn't seen in more films because I loved her in Millers Crossing so I hope after her role in Mystic River and her Oscar for supporting Actress a few years ago we will get to see her a lot more.
This is also another mile stone for Clint Eastwood as this is a subject matter which he has taken to a whole new level in his career but the whole film holds more punches than any film released this year and it's haunting soundtrack just puts it in perspective and makes this film a beautiful, moving, tragic and haunting Masterpiece.