The best movie I've seen this year!

Rating: Null/10 (27 October 2003)

This is an American masterpiece. A dark, disturbing film about scarred lives and respect in a Boston neighborhood. Both a haunting study of men on the edge, and a clever murder mystery, this marks Clint Eastwood's greatest latter-day film ("The Outlaw Josey Wales" stands in a much different place.). There is not a bad performance to be had in this harrowming, original American tragedy. There are bound to be Oscar nominations all around. Sean Penn delivers one of his best performances as vengeful Jimmy. As quiet Dave, Tim Robbins gives arguably his best performance ever. Kevin Bacon is great as Sean, the former childhood friend who escaped the old neighborhood and now lives life as a loser with a badge. Laurence Fishburn gives a fine supporting role that reminds us how he was great before he becaem Morpheus. Marcia Gay Harden, as Dave's frightened wife, gives a performance to eclipse her Oscar-win for "Pollock." And Laura Linney, as Jimmy's wife, gives another good performance, if her character seems somewhat underdeveloped.
The story of Jimmy, Dave, and Sean, three childhood friends who are all changed when Dave is abducted by two men posing as policemen and repeatedly molested before escaping, lends a frightening prologue to the events that encompass the rest of the film. When Jimmy's 19-year-old daughet Katie is found murdered following a night of bar-hopping, friends are reunited in the wake of her death. Sean is the homicide detective brought in to investigate. Dave's wife saw him come in with a nasty cut, a messed up hand, and someone else's blood on him, claiming it was a mugger. Jimmy starts his own hunt for his daughter's killer. Sean uncovers Katie's secret relationship with Brendan Harris, the son of a man who once ratted Jimmy out to the police. And the mystery surrounding Dave's whereabouts that night keeps coming up.
Eastwood, who has turned out many good, and a few mediocre films, is at the top of his game, a first-time music credit tossed in the mix. Brian Helgeland, adapting Dennis Lehane's novel, resurrects the same gifts witnessed in his Oscar-winning script "L.A. Confidential." The movie is a powerful, depressing story brilliantly told. It's not a movie to watch for fun, but it's worth the price of admission.