Rating: 
Summary: A tragic, painful masterpiece.
Review: When I first saw Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River," I found the ending so hateful that it ruined the movie for me. I still find the ending hateful, but I've come to realize that's the movie's whole point. "Mystic River" depicts lives blighted by tragedy, and it's honest enough to carry its tragedy through to the bitter, unresolved end, offering its characters and the audience no solace. Eastwood and screenwriter Brian Helgeland, adapting Dennis Lehane's novel, know how sin--particularly sins of violence--can come home to roost in insular communities; they also know how tragedy and hard living can warp your moral perspective, so that your attempts to avenge injustice may instead only perpetuate and compound it. Meanwhile, Eastwood's direction is lovingly detailed, Helgeland's dialogue is spot-on, and the ensemble cast is nothing short of brilliant--in the cases of Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, Oscar-worthy. "Mystic River" is hard to watch in places, and its ending is as painful as a bullet in the gut. But the bleak honesty of its moral vision and the brilliance of its craft compel our admiration and respect.
Rating: 
Summary: Best film of the year......thus far...???
Review: While still anxiously awaiting the release of "Lord of the Rings:Return of the King" and "The Last Samurai", I would have to say that this is the film to beat for Best Movie honors at the Oscars, as well top honors for Sean Penn for Best Actor and Tim Robbins for Best Supporting Actor. While my wife and I debated the merits of seeing this movie on the big screen (as opposed to awaiting the video release, which I regrettably did for "The Matrix: Reloaded"), there is little doubt that this movie has huge emotional impact for any man who has a teenage daughter. The display of emotion by Penn at the realization of his loss nearly drove me out of the theater in tears.
It's performances like these that merit special attention for Oscar candidates. There were moments in the movie when Penn kindled in me images of Robert DeNiro in his portrayal of the ex-con and devoted family man. The raw emotional power of this film reminds me much of "American Beauty" in a way that I can't put my finger on. Perhaps it's the guild's love of a movie that is a "root shaker", which "American Beauty" definitely was. The same can be said of "Unforgiven".
I've been a fan of Tim Robbins for several years, and his role in this movie was an atonement for his awful (I felt) part in "The Truth About Charlie". He has flashes of brilliance in this role that rival anything done in a leading role by anyone.
And I don't mean to down-play the role played by Kevin Bacon. Here is an actor who has matured to a point of not having to be in the spotlight to display acting talent, and I honestly don't feel the in incidences involving his runaway wife calling him and not speaking are "throwaway". I feel that giving his character some depth through this set of circumstances - and his ultimate reunion with his wife - help lend to giving the three main characters not only a balance, but also a little bit of relief to a viewing audience that probably would have liked to see things turn out well for even one of the three boys who were so tragically linked.
All said.....this is the best movie of 2003, but there are serious contenders coming in the last two months of the year. One would wonder if the Academy is holing up some serious honors that are justly deserved for Peter Jackson and his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: Cry Me A "River"
Review: As pointed out by so many others "Mystic River" is a powerful, emotional, well acted, well written film directed by Client Eastwood ("Unforgiven", "Play Misty For Me"). Without question this is one of the year's best films. And what about the performance by Sean Penn! Of all the movies I've seen this year Penn delivers the best performance I've seen as actor give this year. Unless something really amazing comes out in the next month Penn better win the Oscar. Tim Robbins is right on target as well. He delivers an Oscar caliber performance. Other note worthy aspects of the film include the cinematography, the editing, and the adapted screenplay by Brian Helgeland based on Dennis Lehane's novel. "Mystic River" tells the story of three young boys growing up in Boston. One day a traumatic event occurs leaving a permant emotional scar on one of the boys. Fast foward 30 years later now yet another terrible event occurs. The death of one of their daughters, bringing the demons of the past up front again as they now deal with new demons. And who knows what's the come in the future. All of these characters seemed scarred for life. There is a bleak feeling one gets by the end of the movie. The childhood friends grow up to become Sean Penn (Jimmy Markum), the one who loses his daughter. Tim Robbins (Dave Boyle) and Kevin Bacon (Sean Divine) who has become a cop and is assigned to the case. As I said before there is wonderful acting here. The three men turn in fine performances by almost everytime Penn was onscreen I had goosebumps. Now, I don't say that just to offer idle praise. I'm being sincere. Penn shows a very wide range of emotions in this movie. One of the only faults I have with this movie is it seems to be the men's movie all the way. You have two very talented actresses in Marica Gay Harden and Laura Linney and they are not used properly. I admit more time is given to Harden but they seemed to have forgotten Linney. Now naturally I can't speak for everyone but I thought Linney was great in "You Can Count On Me". I find her to be an extremely talented person. But she has just about nothing in this movie. Her only really good scene where she has more than two lines is at the end of the picture! I just wish they could have given her a better role. Other than that I've no complants. Also spot Eli Wallach, Eastwood's old buddy in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" in a delightful cameo. Bottom-line: An emotional powerhouse of a film. Great acting, good script and fine directing by Eastwood. Truly one of the year's best films.
Rating:
Summary: Something to think about....
Review: Movie keeps you thinking... What would have happened if????? What do people deserve? What is justice? What do people do in time of fear and desire of "just" revenge? Keeps you thinking about these things and more, way after you've seen it. Way worth seeing.
Rating:
Summary: Uncompromising, grueling. A cinematic powerhouse.
Review: Infused with near-biblical power, Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" is a straight hard drink of masculine theory, a journey into the world's dark, vengeful crevices, where the strong eat the weak, yet are not spared by God, and pay dearly for the feast. Beginning in the streets of Boston during the 1978 baseball pennant race and ending 25 years later on the banks of the title river, Eastwood transforms Dennis Lehane's novel into a portrait on the permanence of tragedy and untidy justice. The seams of the plot burst wide open in the film's final 20 minutes, but by then the hooks are in us as much as they are three dye-in-the-wool Irishmen - Jimmy (Sean Penn), Sean (Kevin Bacon) and Dave (Tim Robbins) - caught in a storm of fate that starts to churn when they're 12 years old, as Dave is molested by men pretending to be cops. Dave escapes them after four days, but he's marked - the adult Dave likens it to the undead state of a vampire - and by that adulthood he's lost touch with Jimmy, a shrewd, anguished ex-con running a corner grocery market, and Sean, a square-jawed homicide detective. But their lives intersect again when Jimmy's oldest daughter, Katie (Emmy Rossum), is murdered in a nearby park. Dave - who returned home to his wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden) awash in blood and a gash across his belly - is a likely suspect, as is Katie's secret boyfriend (Tom Guiry), who had planned to elope with her to Las Vegas and has more ties to Jimmy than it first seems. Sean and his sharp, no-nonsense partner Whitey (Laurence Fishburne, nicely low key) lead the murder investigation. Jimmy, meanwhile, has his own team of interrogating thugs. Eastwood, always for substance over plot, wisely pushes the emotional intangibles of Lehane's novel, bearing his camera down on these haunted men and their frailties, while offering Penn free reign to chew whatever scenery he sees fit: His Jimmy is a smart, passionate man, capable of deep love and deep hate, and always mindful of a criminal side he can tap in a flash. Penn has always been a mannered, showy actor, and this performance might be filled with more dramatic blarney than any of his celebrated roles, but he is magnetic in scene after scene; when one character suggests Jimmy could rule the town, we believe it. Penn is a lock for every award nomination they've got to give. The rest of the cast is informed by Penn's work, and equally good. Robbins is perfectly cast as a sad-eyed, shut down giant stalked by his own shadow. Dave isn't stupid - watch how swiftly he turns the tables on Sean and Whitey during one interrogation - but broken, and hardly comforted by his timid wife, played by Harden as a bundle of nerves barely holding herself together. Bacon essentially inhabits the Joe Friday role, though his character is wrapped up in a bizarre subplot with a long-estranged wife who calls him up only to say nothing. Guiry is fine as the boyfriend, and Laura Linney, in a small role as Jimmy's wife, Annabeth, is given a rather cruel, unlikely speech in the movie's final moments that nonetheless hammers home the have/have-not theme on which the movie thrives. As a director, Eastwood is notoriously quick and economical; as a result, some of his more recent films - "Absolute Power," "True Crime" and "Blood Work" - have been thin and visually flat. But the 73-year-old is up to this material, and much like his masterpiece "Unforgiven," Eastwood has the strong script (from "LA Confidential" writer Brian Helgeland) and actors to tackle a fast shoot. "Mystic River" is stark and naturally lit. The few flourishes it takes - a God's eye view of the murder scene, a screen of pure white during the movie's climax, helicopter tours of the dark, velvet river - are masterful touches. "Mystic River" is such a tense, moving experience for much of its running time that the ending, which includes a left-field suspect and a turn of events that fly in the face with judicial reality, is a bit of disorienting letdown. Linney's speech, and that final, cocky shot of Penn, is likely to draw a few looks of disbelief. But the movie has so enforced the idea of lifelong spiritual debt that, while "Mystic River" ends, there is a distinct sense that the characters have not finished their penance. As one character says: "God says you owed another marker. He came to collect."
Rating: 
Summary: Dissappointing
Review: I had very high hope and maybe that is why I was so disappointed. I kept hearing about how great this movie was and how it how it had Oscar written all over it. I had enjoyed the book, but it had been sometime since I read it so I knew it would not spoil the movie for me. However, on a whole the movie is ok and it keeps you guess about what happened the night of the murder. I found it to be a really big disappointment, and not worth the $9 to see it. I saw wait for video, there are lots of other great movies out there Kill Bill and Lost in Translation to name two. The truly only outstanding performance is by Tim Robbins does. I was disappointed with Sean Penn. Kevin Bacon and Lawrence Fishburn do an adequate job. I could not stand Marcia Gay Harden's character. I could not remember if her character was as annoying in the book, but she was horrible. I don't know if this was her fault or the director's. I though that Clint Eastwood did a horrible job with directing this movie. And, maybe that is why I disliked the movie so much. The scene where they find Jimmy Markum's (Sean Penn) daughter, there is no emotion. I felt nothing. The whole scene before and after is almost comical. The ending was also all wrong. Being a movie that is over 2 hours, it didn't need to be. There was just no really feeling for any of these characters other than Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins). There is also this whole substory concerning Kevin Bacon's character and his wife, which has no real point in the story. I just found this movie really disappointing. However, my wife liked it. But I would recommend go see something else and wait for this one on video.
Rating:
Summary: Eastwood has done it again
Review: this is about Penn's daughter being killed and Bacon investigates that links all the evidence to Tim Robbins and then all hell breaks loose. a good story with a superb cast makes this shine. Penn delivers again another dynamic and pulsating performance as Jimmy. Bacon as Sean and Robbins as Dave collide together to bring this movie to life. Eastwood did a great job and it was better than his last movie, Blood Work
Rating:
Summary: THE INTENSE, INTRIGUING MYSTERY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Review: If there's any justice in the world, this movie is bound to sweep the 2004 Oscars. What a brilliant, haunting masterpiece from Clint Eastwood, easily his career's magnum opus as an auteur. To begin my paean, this is not your average police procedural mystery. It is a mystery about human behavior, about these men, their pasts, their relationships with women, and their world (the men are brought together by a murder.) It is only about their relationships with one another as those relationships are colored by external events. As such, this is safe territory for a "guy movie" that plumbs deep emotion without feeling anything too personal. It's a story about what Real Men dream of doing, and how it feels when the dreams become real. It is difficult to address any issue in the plot without unraveling the tapestry Helgeland weaves in his screenplay. I can say that this film is full of disturbing moments, sucker-punches, and palpable anguish. While the theme is not out of this world, in fact all these actors have been in a congruent role in some part of their careers, it is nevertheless chock-full of stunning performances. It may actually be a must-see for the acting alone. Sean Penn nearly resembles Robert DeNiro from "Once Upon A Time In America." Kevin Bacon has matured and for the first time in many years, turns in a performance that is both dark and sympathetic. Marcia Gay Harden plays haunted better than anyone, although we don't see a great deal of range from her in this film. Tim Robbins was perhaps too obvious a choice in his role, but he delivers exactly what "Jacob's Ladder" and "Arlington Road" showed he could do before. He chews a bit of scenery, but always when it's called for. Eastwood directs like a man of passion, in love with his actors and his scenery, employing long takes and two-shots to give the story a sense of real time that is too often avoided by younger directors in favor of interesting angles. 5/5 for the performances, screenplay and Eastwood's steady hand. But 1 point reluctantly deducted for a somewhat indulgent pace and the frequently out-of-place background score (really, it could have been more cheerful!) All said and done, you just have to see this one.
Rating:
Summary: marvelous touching film
Review: Mystic River
***** +
This Is One Of The Best Movies I've Ever Seen. A Thought
Provoking , Moving , And Really Sad Story Of Three Childhood
Friends , And A Murder That Brings Them Back Together
Twenty Five Years Later. It Begins With Dave , Jimmy , And
Sean Playing Stick Ball In Their Neighborhood When Two Guys
Show Up And Dave Gets In Their Car. They Were Writing Their
Names In Wet Cement And Dave Never Finished Writing His
Name. It Goes To Twenty Five Years Later. Jimmy Is A Father
Who's Daughter Has Been Murdered. Sean Is A State Trooper
That Has To Investigate The Murder. Dave Is A Prime Suspect.
This Movie Is Unpredictable And Allot Better Than The Book
Which Was Excellent Also. A Marvelous Movie That Everyone
Should See.
Rating:
Summary: Technically superb, but you walk away disappointed!
Review: The movie is well-acted, well-edited and well-directed. It is, however, extremely dreary and very disappointing at the end. I walked in very eager to see it, but walked out drained and depressed. The message of the film is very dark and pessimistic. There was no closure as victims die and aggressors triumph. When I walked out of the theater, many people behind me were chatting about how much they 'hated' the movie. I didn't hate it. I wanted to like it, but I didn't. It truly deserves zero stars, but I gave it 2 for the acting! Do yourself a favor and don't see this movie.
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