Watchable but overrated

Rating: Null/10 (26 March 2005)

I don't know what it is about some films that makes me feel that I live on a different planet from everybody else. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was one. Over the top stylised nonsense with a story line that makes Hans Christian Andersen's stories read like nuclear physics. Yet almost everyone thought it a great masterpiece. And now Mystic River.
With a cast featuring the acting talents of Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Shaun Penn and Laurence Fishburne you need a major screw up from either the director or screenwriter or both to make this film fail. Nobody screws up that bad, and the movie remains watchable. But it leaves a deeply unsatisfactory feeling in you, almost like you were made to watch a movie that takes itself so seriously that you are compelled to hail it a masterpiece before you even finish watching it, but a great film this ain't.
Before I divulge the chief reason why this movie isn't great and was not going to be even before filming began, let me outline the story. Three childhood friends who used to play together grow into adulthood in the same town. Bacon becomes a cop, Penn becomes a store owner, and Robbins' job must have been insignificant because I don't remember what it was. Way back in the past the three kids are playing when one of them is kidnapped by a couple of nasty adults and raped. The abused kid who is imprisoned so that more abuse can be meted out to him by his sick kidnappers escapes after a couple of days, to be forever scarred mentally by the horror of his experience.
Back in the present, it does not take long for us to guess who the abused kid is now. Robbins with his uncertain, slow speech, slow reactions whenever someone talks to him has to be the boy who suffered. The three boys are no longer that close, they acknowledge each other when meeting by chance, but it looks like they are still in shock over what happened to Robbins all those years ago and friendship has not developed as a result. This is the way things are when Penn's teenage daughter is found murdered. Being of a benevolent gangster disposition, he does his own investigation parallel to the routine cop investigation headed by Bacon. To cut the circumstantial evidence short, Penn's suspicions become fixed on Robbbins, who has had some unaccountable for blood stains and memory issues on the night Penn's daughter was killed.
And now why this movie is not great - it turns out that Robbins rescued a young boy who was being sexually assaulted on the same night Penn's daughter was killed. The struggle left him with the blood, and his unwillingness to explain his whereabouts merely seals his fate as gangster Penn does what he has to do. Let me elaborate further. First we have three young kids who play together. One of them is kidnapped and abused. Second we have the three of them grown up and doing their own thing when one's daughter is murdered. Third we have the now grown up abused boy rescuing a potential victim of sexual assault the same night his childhood friends's daughter was killed. All this in the same town. I well understand the need for dramatic license in movies but this is just pushing it too far. If my point isn't clear yet basically the story is far too coincidental and contrived for this to be anything better than an above average TV movie.
The second weakness is Sean Penn. Powerful actor he can be. But here he is hammy, over the top in parts and confusingly introspective. It is an inconsistent performance which affects the film as his is a major role. Bacon does not have a deep enough role for him to shine through. Robbins is very good in his role. Eastwood directs solidly but cannot hide the weaknesses in the story.
Again certainly not a bad movie and worth watching for the hype at least.