A shattering tale of lost innocence

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2003)

Mystic River (2003/Clint Eastwood) ***1/2 out of ****
After watching "Seabiscuit" last July, I promised myself that I would see as many oscar-worthy type films as I could this Oscar season. Naturally, "Mystic River" was at the top of my list. But unfortunetly, I never got to it, and it seemed to vanish from my memory.....until it won Best Picture at the National Board of Review. Then what do you know? It stops playing at theaters near me on Friday, so I only had a few days left before it was to late. After seeing it, I am glad I saw it before it was too late.
"Mystic River" starts out as one story, then goes to three stories, and then back to one. It starts out in Boston in the late 70's. Three young friends are writing their names on the sidewalk when a man, who appears to be a cop, takes one of them away, and....well, there is no easy way to say it. So flash forward 25 years later and the boys grow up to be Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Tim Robbins. Penn (the neighborhood thug), is trying to come to terms with his daughter's recent murder. Bacon is a detective assigned to the case, while trying to communicate with his pregnant wife who recently walked out on him. And Robbins (the one who was kidnapped), is slowly loosing his sanity. And to top it off, he is a suspect in the case, and his wife (Marcia Gay Harden) expects something. Also along for the ride is Lawrence Fishburne as Bacon's partner, and Laura Linney as Penn's second wife.
What keeps this above the level of an ordinary cop movie, is the powerful performance by Robbins and Penn, the master storytelling by Eastwood, and the classic 'Stephen King-like' theme of lost innocence. This is the best ensemble acting since "Magnolia". When the film was released, this was lots of praise for Penn's performance. But in my opinion, Robbins performance was just as good, and Harden also did a nice job. There was only one thing that bothered me with this film (and it is nothing big): Like others have mentioned, they should have left it with Penn walking down the street. But the rest of the film is excellent. This is the best of 2003, and I hope this goes far at the Oscars. And even if it doesn't, this will still be the best of 03, and nothing can change that.
This film is hard to watch in some points, and is very sad (especially Robbin's character), but still an excellent story with superb acting. See while you still can!
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