Amazingly Simple

Rating: 10/10 (19 April 2004)

The thing that I loved most about this film is that it was very simple. Eastwood relied heavily on the actors to tell this story and it worked perfectly. Instead of using cgi, a bunch of tricky editing stuff, and fancy camera work - all of which is good, by the way - Eastwood simply became a minimalist. Returning to his style in Unforgiven, Eastwood used an outdated (and now radical approach) to the film, he did very little. Mystic River was done in a simple fashion and worked beautifully. The acting was perfect. Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, and Kevin Bacon were all perfect in this film. Marcia Gay Hadren and Laura Linney were wonderful as well, as was Fishburne. I think that is what I enjoyed most about this movie. The acting and the actors made it all work and the film is a radical departure from the never ending list of fancy special effects film that keep coming out of Hollywood these days. While effects are fine, they often come at the expense of story lines (look at what has happened to Bond movies lately).