Solid film, a little unsure of it's direction at times but reassuringly bleak

Rating: Null/10 (28 October 2003)

As children Jimmy, Dave and Sean are all close friends until one day where Dave is abducted by men pretending to be the police. He escapes after days of abuse but is scarred for life. Years later he has married but is still a little mixed up, Jimmy is an ex-con and Sean is a police officer. When Jimmy's daughter is found murdered, he seeks revenge  whether it be through his own route or Sean's police work. The three old friends are brought back together in a variety of ways.
I had heard mixed things about this film before I saw it but I wanted to see it on the strength of the cast and the director's names. The plot starts with a horrid scene of abduction which, while far from graphic, has a sense of foreboding about it that is very unnerving. After this the film jumps forward and we are led into a detective story that touches on the past and how it affects our lives today. The connections are sometimes very poorly delivered  for example the whole affair relating to Sean's wife is just out there and never really understood in the context of the film. Likewise a lot of the other connections seem to be an afterthought to the main detective story  I haven't read the book but I got the impression a lot of it had been crammed into a short time with mixed results.
The end of the film itself exposes the uncertainty the themes are mixed. Jimmy's wife's speech is confusing in it's intent, Sean's reaction (both the happy conversation and `finger gun' gesture) is inexplicable  the ending seems to wipe clean the lives of these two characters, although the regret and loss of Dave's wife is shattering in how it is portrayed. Where the film is strongest is in the characters  they keep the story moving and are a good mix of personalities. Sean is the least well explained but is still a good solid character when you ignore his subplot.
Bacon is sort of the main character of the three as he drives the investigation, he is given good support by Fishburne  who I was able to stop seeing as Morpheus after about 5 minutes. Penn is a great actor but he isn't a great fan of `everything in moderation' and he gets very hammy at times. At one point in the film he is surrounded by a group of policemen and howling at the moon with grief  if you get the dvd and freezeframe it you can clearly see that Penn's shirt cufflinks are actual bits of bacon because he is just a big slice of ham! For the majority of the film he is actually very good, but at key moments he steps up way too much. Much better due to his underplaying, is Robbins. His character is much more difficult and I suspect that the least he will receive for this is a nomination for best supporting actor. Of the women, Harden stands out. Although her character is a little hard to grasp in terms of motivation, her performance is powerful. Linney is good but has less to do until near the end.
The direction is very solid  full of majestic sweeps and nice shots. The music is a little overwrought; as if the film needed the music to do the emotional work for it. The one thing that bothered me is that Eastwood clearly sees this as his next Oscar  he has a worthy, depressing film and fills it with worthy/grand shots with the intent of being worthy enough for the Oscar. I did get the feeling that his heart was as much into getting the Oscar as it was in making a film for it's own sake.
Overall this is a quality film, but it is a flawed quality film. It aspires to much  but much of what it wants is just outside of it's grasp. It is worth seeing as a film driven by good characters painted large by very good actors.