Rating: 
Summary: good story badly filmed
Review: interesting story--- too bad it didnt have a director--look clint eastwood can barely act---and he certainly cant direct at all-- even the actors inadvertently say it on talk shows-- what a pleasure he is to work for- he doesnt say anything--- of course u never know what hes thinking sean penn said on tv- but its ok with actors like sean penn- who doesnt need a director--- so he over acts chews up the scenery in fact--- and a perfectly good story (tho better suited to one of those numerous tv shows about murder amongst the huddled inner city masses and the heroes who solve these crimes--)is wasted on a director who also fatuously writes the boring music-- and the whole thing is so poorly filmed the dialogue is mostly mumbled and lost-- not a big deal as its nothing to write home about either----the cinematography is terrible-- the camera always seems to be in the most ridiculous places----camera angles that look so innnapropriate and amatuerish-- one i rememeber is a shot from sean peens knees--- his hands in the foreground---- dramatic ?? i dont think so !hes talking and we are watching his hands-- uhh ok- whatever--but even the costumes suck--- at one point penn has on this leather jacket and distinctly hollywood sunglasses looking way too cool and designer-ish -but definitely not the boston white trash which seems to be the milieu here- anyway dont believe the hype-- with a director directing -- this thing might have been compelling but as it is--if yer wife or someone insists like mine to see this- hang out in the lobby -see another movie---- but not of course lost in translation which was even worse !!! and both these movies are winning awards !!!!go figure !! its inscrutible -- rent THEM n see for yerself whaT A MISERy these thing s are to sit thru !
Rating: 
Summary: just "good", nothing more
Review: The beginning of this movie looked really good until Sean Penn's daugher was murdered and Tim Robbins came home covered with blood. Clint Eastwood didn't do any great job making Tim Robbins look suspicious. Everyone in the movie who knew about what he did suspected him of murdering Sean Penn's daughter. but he didn't look suspicious at least to me.And the 911 call right after Tim Robbins's blood-covered coming home was too clear. Kevin Bacon found the key of that "Do you wanna know her name?" but that "her" was too clear to miss, so it did not make Tim Robbins suspicious at all. but they did what they did on him even though they were long time friends. that's simply just unbelievable. Kevin Bacon found out- had a little conversation with Sean Penn.....and the wife was coming back to him, so he was just like "screw that, she's coming back to me!!" looking soo happy. Totally crazy. The scariest thing in the movie is Sean Penn's wife, though. the face at the parade, to Tim Robbins's wife.....saying "you are the one who caused it,ok?" without any word. that was scary. means- she was a good actress.
Rating: 
Summary: "I know in my soul I contributed to your death..."
Review: At the particular point in Mystic River when Sean Penn grieves about his murdered daughter, "I know in my soul I contributed to your death...", the viewer can only assume this is because of his misplaced guilt and anger at his loss. What parent would not try to blame him or herself in such a case? What we don't know is that Penn's character, a basically reformed ex-con, is partly responsible. The way in which he and his past bear responsibility unfolds throughout the course of the film, which for all its intricacies and entertainment value and raw emotive power (the actors in this film are all excellent), still somehow leaves me frustrated and not quite completely satisfied. That is not to say this film is not excellent. It is excellent. Sean Penn is excellent because he is natural and comfortable in the skin of this character (and indeed all his characters). Tim Robbins is excellent because he conveys what the entire undertone of the film is: discomfort, never quite feeling or being oneself again in the face of tragedy. I enjoy films that have an underlying tone, and I got an ominous feeling from the way the events of the film unfolded. Still, as another reviewer pointed out, there are points when critical information could be revealed but the plot just won't allow for it (would kill the suspense and the story). When a character has vital information that could in fact save him/her, he/she should reveal it. Sure, maybe Robbins, as a result of the childhood trauma he suffered, maybe is damaged and never recovers and therefore cannot communicate information readily. Still with the stellar cast in excellent roles, I would recommend this film.
Rating:
Summary: A Triumphant Performance of Humanity!
Review: "Mystic River" is not a movie without flaws, but achieves a level of acting unsurpassed by any movie in recent years. The story revolves around the murder of a man's daughter which brings together a group of three friends who grew up together in south Boston. These three friends are played brilliantly by Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and the underrated performance by Kevin Bacon. These three actors reveal a side of humanity that is inside everyone. Brilliantly directed by Clint Eastwood, "Mystic River" deals with the human emotions of grief and despair occuring from the loss of family and innocence. Kevin Bacon plays the detective on the case of Penn's murdered daughter while Robbins plays a possible suspect as he returns home the night of the murder covered in blood. All three portray different types of emotion, but they all come together in a brilliant ensemble performance made even stronger by the supporting roles of the women of the film.
As I said before, "Mystic River" is not without flaws, when you discover how and why the daughter was murdered, it seems to be contrived and unbelievable, but it is a small factor that doesn't hinder an extremely powerful film.
Rating: 
Summary: fantastic movie
Review: i thought the movie was captivating with suspense. cast perfectly with an unreal ending. i will gladly add it to my collection when it becomes available.
Rating:
Summary: Mystic River
Review: Well. In a Hollywood system that has recently been making only movies with big explosions and hollow charactors and telling us thwat they're good, "Mystic River" is most certainly a breath of fresh air. That its also a great movie makes it all the better.
The movie is about three childhood friends(Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, and Sean Penn) who are reunited after Penn's oldest daughter is murdered. Bacon is the cop investigating the case, and Robbins is a beaten down man with a past incident that ties all three togather.
The story isn't as imporatnt as the the way the charactors interact, and they do so well. All three of the principle lead are equally as good, Penn getting the flasher role of the father, but he never over plays it. Robbins has the hardest role, and he plays his charactor as a wounded solider, afraid to go outside for fear of what might happen. And even though Bacon's role requires less emotionally, but he is just as good as the other two, giving the best performnace of his carrer.
The supporting cast is all good too. Larry Fishbourne, fresh from boring us in "The Matrix" sequels, to go back to charactor roles, and Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden take one note roles and make them real. Ecspecially Linney, who becomes a sort of Lady Macbeth in the final scenes.
The movie drags a little bit in the middle, repeating itself, but thats a small point really.
And Eastwood? Let's jsut say that all is forgiven for making "Space Cowboys" and "Absolute Power."-
Rating:
Summary: THE RIVER OF THE SECRETS.
Review: "Mystic River", Clint Eastwood's most recent film, explores the dark side of the human being, that side that keeps terrible secrets and haunting memories from the past. It's a movie emotionally charged with situations that can be very dramatic, so the only way that this movie could have been well made, was counting with a good director and excellent performances. Thankfully "Mystic River" has an impressive cast that successfully contributed to create this complex movie. In the wrong hands, this movie could have been a minor film. Clint Eastwood managed to get an excellent performance from everybody in this movie. From the main characters to the supporting cast, every actor in "Mystic River" did a terrific job. I think that Sean Penn was slightly better in "21 Grams", but without a doubt his performance in "Mystic River" is outstanding and he deserves every award for his role of Jimmy Markum, a multi-dimensional character. Tim Robbins is excellent in his portrayal of a very dark character, a man tormented by his personal demons, and his complex performance also should get him some nominations and awards. Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Tom Guiry, Adam Nelson and Robert Wahlberg created very human and believable characters, their performances help to get the audiences involved in the plot, making "Mystic River" a very interesting story from beginning to end. "Mystic River" is not a masterpiece, but it's a very good movie, one of the best of 2003, and thanks to its great artistic quality, it's a very recommendable film.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated and underwhelming
Review: I must say that I am dumbfounded by all the great press this film continues to get. The actors are all good I suppose, and Eastwood's direction is fairly surehanded, but the plot is just too contrived and unfocused. One also gets the impression from the trailer and title that the river would be a sort of character in the film, but it is scarcely mentioned and only really shows up as the background for one scene. For all Eastwood's chatter about how the Boston location was so integral to the film, the locations all feel pretty generic. Perhaps most disappointing however, are the extreme inconsistencies in some of the main characters. Laura Linney (who plays Sean Penn's wife) spends the entire film behaving like your average grieving parent, then delivers a wild Shakespearean monologue in the last scene that seems to be spoken by a different character. Likewise, Sean Penn's ex-con character begins the film as a complex and sympathetic father and husband, but quickly devolves into a fairly stereotypical mob-figure by the last scene. Lots of seemingly important threads that the film spends enormous screen time on are never explained, such as Kevin Bacon's marital problems with his seemingly mute wife. It seems that all the self-important reviewers piling accolades on this film think that just because something tragic happens in a film that it suddenly becomes art. The greatest tragedy in Mystic River is that it was made at all.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible and dangerous distortions in this movie
Review: I saw Mystic River last night, which had brilliant acting and was beautifully put together; by the end I was totally under the movie's spell. Coming to myself, though, I think it's an evil, though clearly well-intentioned movie. Not just because it's full of ludicrous and manipulative plot coincidences, like simultaneous murders (separately involving people who'd coincidentally spent the evening in the same place, these murders occurring at the same time, on the same night, of victims with the same blood type), people who won't confess secrets to their wife when they obviously would, and mutes suddenly able to speak just long enough to give things away. What makes it so terrible is the movie's clear point (reinforced in a couple of different ways, including through casual remarks by the cops) that to be abused as a child is a terrible fate that destroys you in mind and soul and turns you into an abuser and killer. Hello? Could one person in the movie have said something (less didactic but...) "Wait, what about all the abused kids who grow up to be teachers and healers and wonderful human beings?" A perfect moment would have been when one cop was assuming that the former abused child was inevitably the killer because "it fits the profile. He was an abused kid -- why don't we already have him locked up?" Why not answer that? Because any balance or note of reality that didn't slander former abused children would apparently have interfered with the film's insistence on an utterly bleak worldview. For that, it is willing to sacrifice reality and to create dangerous misconceptions in the mind of the public. If you were abused, says this movie (or, if, in fact, you even were friends with someone abused), you're destroyed for life and will shamble in madness and despair for the rest of your life.
Rating:
Summary: Great actors but this film is incredibly over-rated
Review: There is no question that Mystic River is an adequately directed and generally well-executed film. It certainly contains a lot of outstanding actors. But unfortunately they are all doing the best they can with trite dialogue and a not entirely strong script. I am astonished at how many critics that I admire are falling over themselves to pronounce this film the best of the year. Perhaps I should go back and view it again as it seems I am a minority. Perhaps it is because I am a native Bostonian and I was distracted by Tim Robbins (a fine actor) badly mangling the accent (a Hollywood actor's version of down-East Maine meets lawn-guy-land...it just does not work). Sean Penn is probably the only reason to see this film. The parts thrown to Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden were too small to do them justice. But there were just too many instances in this film, in which the dialogue was just awful, for me to jump on the bandwagon and pronounce it as a successful film. A big, well-funded Hollywood production like this should aim higher. Not Clint Eastwood's strongest directing work.
|
