Not mystic. Just the unvarnished truth.

Rating: Null/10 (8 February 2004)

There is nothing I like better than a cast of excellent actors being given a series of strong roles in a good drama like this one. I find that much more impressive than line after line of computer generated soldiers doing battle, (if you know what I mean). This film was like a breath of fresh air to me, focusing on real, multi-dimensional people played by talented actors who know what they are doing. That's rare in the cinema these days.

Sean Penn is garnering most of the allocades and he is wonderful, his transformation into the DeNiro of his generation being now complete. The pain of a man haunted by the past and what he has become is evident in not only every scene but every look and gesture. This was the guy who played Spiccolli? But the best performance in the film is by Tim Robbins, as a middle-aged wreck of man whose life ended because of a childhood ordeal and who has been just wandering through life since. His hollowed-out eyes, the combination of defiance and resignation he has at the end is something very memorable.
The supporting cast lives up to their high standards. Laura Linney, with her `Lady McBeth' scene, (which should have come earlier in the film), Marcia Gay Harden as the wife who can't believe what her husband has done, Kevin Bacon as the cop who has to investigate his old friends and Laurence Fishburne as his partner who wants to make sure Bacon doesn't stray from his professional duties are all first-rate.
Clint Eastwood's direction is evocative and lucid. The film, at 137 minutes, never drags and his juxtaposition of Penn's confrontation with Robbins and the similar confrontation between the kids is masterful. The atmosphere of the film is superb. Eastwood used to be thought of as the next generation's John Wayne. Can you imagine John Wayne doing `Mystic River'? And did you notice that he composed the score?
Still, there are flaws, (POSSIBLE SPOIILERS)
-	Why, oh why, doesn't the film end with Penn saying that they all got in that car? Surely Bacon would have taken him in at that point. What's with the parade at the end?
-	The boyhood tragedy isn't really that strongly tied to the events of the present. Penn makes a speech that he wouldn't have become the guy he became without it. I wonder about that.
-	As I mentioned, Linney's speech would have meant a lot more if it came earlier in the film, expressing support for Penn's actions before they found out they were wrong. By the time it happens, even Penn knows he's just created another tragedy.
-	The Cross- it appears on the ring. It appears on Penn's back. What does it mean in the context of this story? Would Penn have gotten such an obvious symbol of his hidden pain etched into his body? Of course, he may not know that one of the abductors wore such a ring. But if that's true, why the tattoo?
-	We don't learn much about the real perpetrators and their crime does not, in fact evolve from any of the personal dramas the movie concentrates on.

By the way, if you're like me, you like to rent more than one movie at a time, often with the selections having some relationship to each other. If you rent this one, look also for a film from two years ago called `In the Bedroom'. It contains many of the same elements, (although the neighborhood is certainly different). The murder of a beloved child. Revenge by a character you can identify with if not really admire. The New England setting. Excellent acting and direction. Nothing is computer generated. Just people and their unvarnished truths.