Review of Mystic River (2003) by John M — 07 Feb 2012

Just misses the mark for me. Mystic River is about three childhood friends, who are bound by a dark tragedy that occurred when they were eleven. Their three paths cross again in adulthood when one of their daughter's is murdered.

This is from Clint Eastwood, and while I love him to death as an actor, he's really hit-or-miss as a director. For every awesome film I love by him (Gran Torino, Million Dollar Baby), he has a plodding movie (Changeling) or one that could be used as a sleep-aid (Invictus).

This is admittedly one of his better movies, but it is one I had lots of trouble connecting with. It's written by Brian Helgeland, and it doesn't interweave these characters as well as he did in L.

A. Confidential, and that leads me to my biggest gripe with the film. It is telling this story from three different points of view, with them naturally sharing some time together, but when it switches characters, it has a drastic, gear-grinding tonal shift.

It only gels together at the end, so get ready for a man dealing with grief, a murder investigation procedural, and a mystery from the one who is mentally unsound, and all with the appropriate atmospheres when that point of view is taken.

I have nothing against Sean Penn as an actor, but when I watch him, I don't see the character he is playing, I only see Sean Penn, and because of that, I found it impossible to get involved empathetically with his story.

I also couldn't get too deeply into Tim Robbins' arc, either, as it was told slowly and I could see where it was going from the starting gate. The only part I could really get into was Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne as homicide investigators, but I kept getting yanked out of it because of the aforementioned shifts in tone.

There are a lot of good elements to it; there is quality cinematography, a cool minimalist score that doesn't manipulate you and all around good acting. However, this isn't one I'm likely to go back and rewatch because on top of the issues I have with it, it's slow moving, and does feel a good bit contrived in retrospect.