Review of Mystic River (2003) by David C — 24 Jul 2010
A wonderfully constructed crime story written by Dennis Lehane, an author who- since this successful Eastwood adaptation- has been the inspiration for a number of great films. Though the whole thing is engaging, there are two elements that are impossible to look away from: Tim Robbins and Sean Penn.
Both actors are at the top of their games here, and each brings a very different but essential intensity to the film, turning a Boston crime story into a disturbingly domestic and entirely plausible situation that makes us examine the frightening power of human impulse.
Each decision in this film is driven first by instinct and then evaluated later- and is usually regretted. The story blurs the line between humans as intellectual beings and as animals like any other- and nothing is more frightening than this.
Harden, Linney, Fishburne and Bacon all deliver phenomenal support to the two tragic figures up front, and the film only wavers during its final scenes, where a strange mix of melodrama and overexposure threaten to kill the power of the movie's sickening twist.
This review of Mystic River (2003) was written by David C on 24 Jul 2010.
Mystic River has generally received very positive reviews.
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