Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing, wonderfully complex, and dark as sin
Review: This is in my opinion the apex of Clint Eastwood's career as a director. In a way, I believe the standard Clint Eastwood character has sometimes obscured the moral ambiguity at the heart of many of his films. In some, it becomes more obvious, as in UNFORGIVEN and TIGHTROPE, but usually the characters he plays misleadingly gives the films more moral clarity than exists. But with no roles appropriate for his age, this film is tremendously strengthened by his not appearing in the film.It is impossible to over praise the acting in this film. Many have opined that Sean Penn should win an Oscar for his performance, but I think a group Oscar by Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast would be more appropriate. No one does a bad job, but the performances by Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, and Marcia Gay Harden stand out. Each one of them brings a level of believability and pathos to his or her character, and while Penn is getting well deserved attention for his performance, I believe Robbins does just as well in his tormented, disturbed character. A couple of reviewers have suggested this isn't a mystery film, but that isn't quite right. It certainly isn't a whodunit, but it is very definitely about the mysteries of the human psyche, of the monsters that we sometimes become because of the horrors that afflict us. Tim Robbins's character mentions often werewolves and vampires, and what each has in common is that in each case they become monsters because of things that have happened to them against their will. So too he intimates that he is a bit of a monster because of the events recounted early in the film. I haven't read the novel upon which the film is based, but the plot bears some resemblance to the plots of the novels of Ross MacDonald, in which the causes for crimes in the present are often to be found in the past. Or, as Yeats put it in "Leda and the Swan," when Zeus rapes and impregnates Leda, who will give birth to Helen, he "engenders there/The broken wall, the burning roof and tower/And Agamemnon dead." So too, Dave's getting into the car and Jimmy and Sean's not getting into the care created the possibilities that unfolded in the course of this film. Unlike some of the reviewers who have complained about the ending, I think it is the ending that makes this film the minor masterpiece that it is. The crucial scene is the one with Laura Linney in the bedroom near the end explaining to Sean Penn what role he has to play. Without giving away any plot, I will just hint that that scene provides the key with which to understand everything touching the end of the film. This is a powerful and impressive film, and will represent one of the highpoints of the careers in all the principals involved.
Rating:
Summary: Sin and redemption and the effect of the past on the present
Review: Clint Eastwood is a fine director and has a great story, screenplay and actors to work with. The film's theme is more than the mystery of who committed a horrible crime. It's about sin and redemption and the effect of a crime in the past on a different crime in the present. My emotions were stirred by the very real human condition which it depicted. The story begins in the past in a working class area of Boston. Three friends are playing hockey one day when, suddenly, one becomes the victim of a horrible crime. Even though he survives and grows to adulthood, he will always bear its scars as an adult. This adult role is played by Tim Robbins and his performance is so outstanding that he didn't even seem to be acting. Sean Penn is cast as his friend who was present that day in the past and remembers what happened. Now, in the present, his own life is shattered when his 19-year old daughter is brutally murdered. We all get to feel his grief as he has to identify her body in the morgue. And we all can identify with his feelings of rage and helplessness. He's a petty criminal with ties to unsavory characters as well as some secrets of his own from the past and is determined to find the killer himself. He's a good actor and I found myself thinking about his performance during the film. Perhaps this was because his performance was just a little bit too "over the top". Or perhaps the role he was playing and his skill in playing it had to display grief so deep that it was just too difficult to watch. Kevin Bacon is cast in the role of the third friend with memories of the past crime. Now he's a cop who has to investigate his friend's daughter's murder. It's an understated role and calls for him to make some serious decisions about what is right and wrong. The supporting actors were excellent too. Mary Gay Harden plays Tim Robbins' wife. She loves her husband but is suspicious when he comes home late one night with a cut on his hand. Laura Linney is Sean Penn's wife. She plays a small role until one of the last scenes where she is instrumental in creating closure. Laurence Fishburne is cast as a cop investigating the crime and sometimes has to push into places where his partner, Kevin Bacon, does not want to go. His role is instrumental but this particular acting assignment wasn't as challenging as it was for the other cast members. The film held my interest throughout, kept me guessing, and kept picking up velocity. And the conclusion solved the crime but also provided food for thought about some very difficult choices and the human condition. Highly recommended for lovers of serious films.
Rating:
Summary: DON'T BAD MOUTH A MASTERPIECE, THINK ABOUT IT.
Review: mystic river is not supposed to be a murder mystery. they pretty much show he did it at the starting. the movie is about evil and the power evil holds in most peoples lives. this movie creates real life seens where evil will turns even your close friends into enemys. at the starting of the movie when the mute kid and his brother walk into sean penns store and sean penn says how much he doesn't like them. and then the other worker says how the brothers really love each other. it was so easy to figure out that they had somthing to do with it. i read a lot of reviews saying the movie's direction had no emotion in it. clint eastwood did a perfect job because the movie isn't supposed to have emotion. thats not what it is trying to show. lets hope the dvd is packed with extras
Rating: 
Summary: the ending changed my opinion of the film
Review: Without giving away any critical plot points, I have to say up front that the ending of this film left me disappointed, confused and irritated. While sitting through the two-plus hours of running time, I was thinking the acting was the best part, not the plot or the characters. I didn't feel any sympathy for any save Tim Robbins' and Marcia Gay Harden's characters. The rest were self-involved, arrogant and cold. Saying that though the performances were mostly outstanding. Especially from Tim Robbins and Marcia Gay Harden. I am not a Sean Penn fan, and this movie didn't change my mind. Laura Linney's performance was great, if incredulous towards the ending which turned my impressions and feelings 180 degrees. Another reviewer made mention of the ending and how he felt that there were several plot holes, and the characters' motivations and actions didn't add up in the end. I'll second his thoughts, the plot started coming apart in the second hour, and had me replaying prior scenes to make sense of it all. Once again Clint Eastwood has been lauded by the critics for what I am not sure. It is not a cinematic masterpiece, nor is it a film of the year pick in my book, and I see dozens of films every year. Save your money and read the book which is probably better, or just wait for the home video release.
Rating: 
Summary: Except for the acting, extremely disappointing
Review: I read raves and raves about this movie - especially about the acting - but even the most brilliant performance can't redeem what is essentially an unusually melodramatic episode of Law & Order with poor dialogue and a number of huge plot holes. Let me just point out the plot holes first: - The indication is that we are supposed to believe that the Tim Robbins character actually killed a pedophile that night behind the bar. But nothing in the flashback indicates that the man was, in fact, a pedophile. Although Robbins claimed that he caught the two of them having sex, why in the world would a criminal choose the area JUST behind the bar - where he can be easily seen - to commit this act? It made absolutely no sense. - How exactly did those two boys murder that girl? The explanation that we're supposed to believe is that they wanted to scare her, but the clues - which are never really followed up on - indicate that her car must have hit the curb, then she must have gotten out (and said Hi as if to a friend) and then been shot. But why did her car hit the curb at all? We are given no convincing explanation of how the brother - who is clearly not a murderer - would have carried this out. Even if we consider it all the other boy's doing: the explanation makes no sense. - Laura Linney's sudden conversation into Lady Macbeth: where does it come from? The scene with Jimmy at the end is the type of thing that would make sense if the entire movie had been leading up to it. She suddenly rises out of the water to change from a secondary character to become one of the moving forces of the film. It truly feels random. And what does it do to Jimmy? That mysterious shooting sign at the end explains nothing about either Jimmy or Kevin Bacon - and the subplot with his wife, incidentally, is also misplaced. All of these concerns can, of course, be explained within the framework of the movie. And they don't sink the movie, necessarily, but they do show that the man at the helm isn't thinking carefully about what he's doing. It indicates a lack of critical intelligence that lets all those wonderful performances go to waste. Penn has received most of the praise, but Robbins is the one who is genuinely incredible. And even he can't redeem god awful lines about "vampires" and "wolves" chasing children, that are so obviously connected to his sexual molestation that they might as well draw big red arrows on the screen. The best way to make us feel the impact of that horrible assault is to NOT KEEP TALKING ABOUT IT: instead we get constant flashbacks, constant references and blatant symbolism All of it points - and with a big red arrow - to the lack of subtlety that marks every aspect of the film but the performances, and the director's flimsy cinematic intelligence. The praise seemed to be inspired not by the actual movie, but by the movie that people wished Eastwood had made. Well, he didn't make it - this movie is mediocre.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat confusing, but definitely great!
Review: Mystic River starts off with three young boys (Jimmy, Sean, & Dave)playing in their neighborhood, when one is abducted for about 4 days and escapes. 25 Years later forced to become friends again Sean, (Kevin Bacon)now a cop, is assigned to head the murder of Jimmy's (Sean Penn) 19 year old daughter. Circumstances lead to Dave (Tim Robbins) being the number one suspect. This movie is awesome. Throughout the whole movie i was like "What?" but by the end i was like "Ohhh." The reason i enjoyed this move so much was because it wasn't only about solving a murder, but it was about friendship and fighting battles in your life. The great acting made you actually feel like you knew the characters. The one thing I didn't like was that at the end they kind of still had you guessing to exactly what happend, and what is still yet to come. Overall i would suggest this move to anyone who loves a great mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Gritty and intense
Review: Mystic River grabs you right away and does not let go. The characters are so human and the story is loaded with tragic irony. It is chilling and powerful without being overly graphic. There are two crimes (25 years apart) that have rocked 'the Flats' area of Boston and they both involve the three childhood friends. Sean Penn is intense as Jimmy Markum, whose daughter is murdered in the present day. He runs a party store and is a lot shady. Tim Robbins plays the tortured soul who had been molested in the past and is now assumed to have committed the murder. Kevin Bacon is the third friend, now a Massachussetts state cop dealing with his failing marriage and this twisted case that involves his two former friends.
The rest of the characters are well-developed and convincingly portrayed. Although I figured the killer out just before the cops, the movie still held my interest until the end. The cinemetography is incredible, especially most of the arial shots and the use of shadows during the river scene towards the end.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing Drama
Review: "Mystic River" is movie making at its best. Clint Eastwood has proved that he is and always was the most consistent director over the last 25 years,his track record proves that. I found that the movie even surpassed the book for tension and the acting by all concerned was terrific. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins deserve Oscar nominations as does Eastwood for a drama that keeps the viewer glued throughout. Disturbing at btimes,but gripping and compelling nevertheless. When analysing the best movies of the decade this will definetely be up there
Rating:
Summary: Clint Eastwood¿s best film Since Unforgiven
Review: Mystic River is a real though provoking film that not only sheds light on the nature of revenge and grief, but shows the aftermath of both with a sharp poignancy that is heartbreaking and haunting. This is Clint Eastwoods best movie since Unforgiven, and his most powerful. Sean Penn is amazing, and if he does not get an Oscar nomination for his gut retching role, then there is something wrong in this world. Kudos To Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburn, Tim Robbins and for great supporting roles and you have one of the best movies of the year.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting story and performances
Review: Mystic River is much more than a good crime story. It's more about people. Family, friends and neighbors. It's about the human psyche. How we deal with our pasts, our secrets, our fears and our demons. It's a story of revenge. Or is it a story of justice? The Mystic River, actually running through Boston, provides the dramatic backdrop for many scenes and events, both past and present. The Mystic flows near the Irish-American streets of Boston, a working-class neighborhood where three friends began their lives and remained, becoming permanent fixtures in the community. In 1975 Jimmy Markum, Sean Devine and Dave Boyle were those three friends. Friends until Dave got into that car with two strangers, escaping four days later forever changed. Although the details were never discussed, that event became a defining moment in all three lives. Twenty-five years later . . . Jimmy (Sean Penn), an ex-con who still has mob connections, owns a convenient store and has lived the straight-life for fifteen years after a two-year stretch at Deer Island Correctional. He has a beautiful wife (Laura Linney) and three daughters. But his past remains with him, ready to explode like a loose cannon. Sean (Kevin Bacon) is a homicide detective just coming off a suspension and is still in love with his wife who walked out on him a year ago with their unborn child. Dave (Tim Robbins), married with a son, tries to be a good husband and father, but is tormented by the demons born in his past, trying desperately to keep them submerged. When Jimmy's oldest daughter Katie is murdered, the three boyhood friends a thrown face-to-face again. In their own way, they each share in the tragedy of Katie's death as well as that terrible day back when they were eleven years old. The questions loom throughout their lives. What if Dave never got into that car? What if Jimmy and Sean got into that car with Dave? Based on the best-selling novel by Dennis Lehane, Mystic River is a riveting film with an all-star cast (including Laurence Fishburne and Marcia Gay Harden). Fortunately the author agreed to the direction of Clint Eastwood (his 24th) and the two worked closely together to keep the film in sync with the novel. I saw this film the day after finishing the novel. This may have had a negative effect on some of my gut reactions and instincts as the story unfolded. Obviously, I knew what was coming all along. But the book was a must-read and the film is a must-see. You can't beat that. The casting is superb and the gut-wrenching performances by Sean Penn and Tim Robbins are not to be missed.
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