Overrated Mess of a Movie

Rating: Null/10 (6 April 2004)

`God was watching me but He wasn't angry. It was more like looking down at a puppy who had soiled the carpet.' Sean Penn's character says this in `Mystic River' right before yet another horrific act is committed. Clint Eastwood must have put that line in to this movie himself in reference to his production of this twisted tale from the wrong side of the fence. Clint must have had this same dirty, guilty feeling during filming. If this bizarre neighborhood is any true indication of the Boston area then it's no wonder that God has cursed the Red Sox. Why the need to go out of the way to show one of the two kidnappers as wearing a ring with a Christian symbol? Who does this movie appeal to? I take great offense when Hollywood portrays the death of a nineteen-year-old as a reason to base a movie solely for the emotional baggage it brings to a film. There was nothing redeeming about this film and it sure wasn't escapist entertainment. Again I ask, whom does this movie appeal to?