Review of Mystic River (2003) by Cameron J — 16 Apr 2012

"Mystic river, take my mind; don't let her memory torture me." Not to be mistaken for a movie "starring" Clint Eastwood; that's "Old Man River". Man, I would just love to hear his absurdly gruff-voiced self try to sing that deep foghorn-throat tune. Of course, I think I just want to hear him sing, in general, just to make sure that he does actually have musical ability in him, because I highly doubt that he actually composed the score for this film, seeing at I find it pretty hard to invision Eastwood playing a musical instrument, let alone music this startlingly unintense. I guess that's why there's not a whole lot of music being played to begin with, because although I respect the fact that Eastwood is out there, showing us a deeper side, he's probably got too much awesome left in him to be playing the piano for too long. Hey, I don't care if he's dancing around a Sombrero with one leg folded back and all the cigarettes from two packs stuffed in his mouth at once (Considering his voice now-a-days, he probably has experience in that); just as long as he keeps making movies, because he's pretty good at it (Though not much more than just "pretty good"). Of course, maybe he does stand to play a little more music or something, because without that, this film gets a little bit too quiet for its own good.

If nothing else tells you that this is a Clint Eastwood film, then it's, well, the cinematography... and subject matter, a close-to 140 minute runtime (Seriously, does anyone else think that it's more than just a coincidence that he almost always lands around towards the end of the 130s on the clock?) and that old-school grey Warner Bros. logo. Of course, next to that, the film's being so dry is a dead giveaway, because although he's not in front of the camera anymore, quietness with Eastwood is as much a trademark today as it was back during the days when he was a cool dude of few words, or, in other words, back when he was justified in keeping things so ridiculously quiet. Okay, the film isn't that dead silent, and if it is, then it's rarely gratuitous, yet the film does still hit points where it's a little bit too emphatic about it's dry atmosphere, which isn't to say that the atmosphere is only dry during the more quiet moments. The film is consistently slow in atmosphere, not only rendering the film a touch dull from time to time, but intensifying the sting of repetition. Now, the film doesn't go in circles, following the same beat, down to the letter, like certain other mystery films. Still, the film only does so much and only so many time before you have to say, "Okay, maybe you could move things alone", and with a film this pumped with unrelenting intrigue and drama, you cannot afford to have the audience feel that way. However, although the intrigue lapses on the rarest of occasions, it never fades, kept alive by Eastwood's usual taste in good old-fashion filmmaking skill that brings a lot of life and uniqueness to this potentially conventional tale, which isn't to say that the film doesn't boast Eastwood's usual stylistic choices that are anything but old-fashion.

Tom Stern returns for the first of many times as Clint Eastwood's cinematographer, yet just because this was only his second run with Eastwood, that doesn't mean that he doesn't know how to shoot Eastwood's films real well, as this film, like all other Eastwood-Stern collaborations, has that uniquely pale, almost silver-like saturation that Stern is known for, not only making for some beautiful color, but effective supplements to the very intriguing, often very bleak tone. The film has been deemed by many as "depressing", and it is, though depressing in a smart way, as its bleakness does not relentlessly and manipulatively bear down to the point of leaving you emotionally fatigued; only emotionally touched by the gritty, audacious realism that Eastwood portrays with such sobering grace, as well as compelling bleakness, and he supplements it all with his rarely used, yet still fairly effective score work. I don't find this film to be as consistently powerful as many claim it to be, though it is a thoroughly engaging drama with much sobering intrigue, broken up by genuine emotional intensity, and for that emotional resonance, credit goes out, not just to Eastwood and Stern, but to the people in front of the camera. Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne are given only so much to do outside of be charismatic, and being that this is Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne we're talking about, of course you can expect some charisma. Still, their detective characters are not simply your run-of-the-mill charming, cool cops; they're more realistic than that, with humanity and investment in the situations at hand, though they struggle to keep that investment from intensifying to the point of hazing their views, and while those traits in Detectives Sean Devine (Ha-ha, Devine) and Whitey Powers (Ha-ha, Laurence Fishburne's name is Whitey) are rarely written to be terribly played up, Bacon and Fishburne play their roles with a subtle presence of humanity, as well as authority, making them very compelling unravelers of such a complex mystery. Still, the real hardcore emotion and material rests in the sidelines of the search, with those affected by the crime, and boy, do their performers really sell it to you, particularly Tim Robbins, whose Dave Boyle character is a haunted, yet very human one, and Robbins manages to nail the workmanlike humanity in Boyle, as well as some sense of scarring from past struggles. Boyle goes through many layers and does it all under a shroud of offputting mystery, and watching Robbins subtley and emotionally orchestrate that very meditative dance of humanity, paranoia and mystery is an experience matched, if not surpassed by the acting show put on by Sean Penn, who portrays the slow train wreck of emotion found in the poor souls that have gone through the Jimmy Markum character's experience - that no man should have to face - with quiet, if not boastful emotional intensity, which then manifests itself into humanity-destroying wrath, and it's a transformation in Markum that Penn nails with gripping tension and compellingness in his abundantly-layered presence, making him one of, if not the biggest standout in this broad cast of across-the-board excellent performers.

As the river runs dry, there's no getting around Clint Eastwood's typical slowness, as well as some repetition that keep the film from the being relentlessly intense, yet the film remains consistently engaging, thanks to its handsome visual style, golden moments where emotional power especially breaks through and - perhaps most of all - across-the-board humanly charismatic and emotional performances, with Tim Robbins and Sean Penn particularly standing with their subtle, when not intense, layered performances that help in making "Mystic River" the often thoroughly compelling, yet frequently intriguing piece of drama that it is.

3/5 - Good.