Mystic River is a Sean Penn & Clint eastwood tour de force

Rating: 10/10 (19 October 2003)

Mystic River Director: Clint Eastwood Jimmy: Sean Penn Dave: Tim Robbins Sean: Kevin Bacon
You know it took a while, a long while. The first three quarters of this year produced very few movies that rose above "entertaining". Hell going into October there were only three movies I had seen which I would qualify as great, Phone Booth, X2 and Dirty Pretty Things(T3 came close). Then came Kill Bill. It blew everything away and was my lock for movie of the year...that lock lasted an entire week. Mystic River is THE best picture of 2003 so far. Better than Lost in Translation, better than Th13teen, better than Phone Booth and, yes, better than Kill Bill.
Mystic River takes you on an emotional ride through a small neighborhood and a murder which brings very ugly memories, and even uglier futures. I won't go over the plot, cause really it's pointless. Plus I don't wnat to spoil anything although it really doens't matter. This aint about a big twist ending or a big shoot-out ending, Mystic River's ending is just another step in life and it's heart wrenching getting there.
I must first commend the great Clint Eastwood(one of the most underrated movie makes of our time IMO). This movie features no quick cuts or camera tricks. No special effects or action set pieces. It features realism(and soemtimes graphic realism), it features real characters gonig through troubles and trying to find real solutions. Eastwood has a sure hand in all this and stages the film perfectly. Not one shot is wasted and it is all Eastwood's vision, all the way down to the beautiful score.
The acting, just by the actors names, you know is good. But I never expected it to be this good. Sean Penn wins the Oscar already with his performance. If he is not rewarded with the best actor statuette it's ultimate proof of the Academy's bias and BS. Penn is gut wrenchingly powerful in the early part of the film but in other parts is coldly sadistic but with a reason and thus even in his more sadistic scenes there is a sense of truth and tragedy towards Jimmy, making this Penn's greatest performance of his great career.
Tim Robbins puts in, arguably although only Shawshank comes close, the best performance of his career as his lack of emotional range fits perfect for Dave's traumatic state. Laura Linney, Marci Gay Harden, Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Bacon provide ample support to the leads making this the best ensemble cast of the year.
Overall there isn't much to say about Mystic River except this will move you and it will make you feel. It could possibly be classified a Shakesperean tragedy rewritten in modern time. The guilt, the revenge, the inner struggle it's all there. The acting is the best of any movie this year. But in the end this is Clint Eastwood's movie and, as he always does, Eastwood "makes our day" by making the best picture of 2003.
****3/4(out of 5*)