I love Clint Eastwood, when I was kid that time I used to love his style of spitting in western movies. When he become a director my expectation were at peak & unforgive flick his debut directed now is considered as cult cinema But I liked Mystic River more.
The way actors performed the plot with a mind blowing direction.
Mystic River is a character commanded murder mystery that keeps speculation with every scene. It’s adapted plot from Dennis Lehane’s novel is psychological drama which shows the boulevards of Boston in search of a young girl’s killer. It is an extensive story that gains from Eastwood’s narrow piece behind advance. Director is totally focused on firm acting to direct his depressing, complex story of loss & revenge to a memorable, heartbreaking climax. He effectively directs a riveting & very dark drama which gives really grand remarkable shots that manage to move the story effortlessly. It is a really character learning with astonishing acting that will haunts for many years. It discovers how destructive the death of a loved one can be & what eventually twists people can take in their voyage to hunt for justice for their loved ones. The story is slow to take its time for every character to provide their reason. Each character is a point on this immense trap that the script writer has revolved, & each scene gives one smaller piece of the riddle. Eastwood holds the substance with great delicacy, which makes certain that only the right kind of sense appears through the pain stranded faces & ripped eyes of his characters.
The plot goes into flash back Dave Boyle(Robbins), one of three friends, was kidnapped & sexually harmed in his youth by a pair of steal posturing as police officers who forced him into their car and drove off. Each of the three boys, Dave, Jimmy Markum(Sean), & Devine(Kevin Bacon), is affected differently by the incident. After few years Dave, is married & have a young son, but he is perpetually troubled by the molestation. He lives in the Boston neighbourhood of Mystic River where he grew up & takes long walks around the streets at night, it appears that he is searching for his lost childhood. Jimmy, the toughest of the trio, was find guilty of robbery a few years after the molestation to his friend, spends two years in prison, after which he also settles down in the same Mystic River area, & becomes a family man, the father of three girls, & the owner of a small grocery store. Sean Devine in the swing of things is best, graduating from college becoming a police detective, but his domestic life is in pieces without any wife. A brutal misfortune in their present lives brings them all together again. Jimmy’s 19 year old daughter, Katie(Emmy Rossum), is found murdered in a park, beaten & shot. Jimmy goes crazy, joins his own thug friends, Val(Kevin Chapman), Nick Savage(Adam Nelson), to do some investigating for him on their own. Jimmy’s wife, Annabeth(Laura Linney), sticks stubbornly by her man in his hunt of revenge. Devine with his partner, Whitey Powers(Laurence Fishburne), are called onto the scene to do the official police investigation. Dave turn out to be a main suspect both of Whitey & Jimmy’s crew because he was the last one to see Katie alive, he was out of the house the night of the murder, he has a unexplained bruise on his hand. Dave’s wife too, Celeste(Marcia Gay Hardin), suspects him. Sean, refuses to believe that his old buddy had anything to do with the crime & maintains upon following up a lead on the gun used in the murder, a gun that he and Whitey trace to the strangely missing father of Katie’s boyfriend, Brendan(Thomas Guiry), & Brendan’s mute younger brother, Ray(Spencer Treat Clark). Then, all of them come all together one evening, at the same moment. That’s synopsis of plot, complex with revenge as theme.
The performances have a rare depth, passion with rawness. Sean Penn exceeds himself as Jimmy, with his sad, revengeful looks, prison tattoos of a rebel becomes wiser by time. He gives a performance that will just leave entirely breathless with moments that will bring you to tears, like the moment when he discovers his daughter has died. He is excellent. Robbins creates a character that displays sadness & total pain with every movement for which he got Oscar too. There is a great acts of supporting actors with Fishburne who plays the humorous Whitey who gives superb bonding with Kevin Bacon as the two trades great dialogues with each other. Other female cast is also great as tense people. Overall excellent cast justified by director.
Mystic River needs profound focal point on the various tortured souls to fully be tie together. Shove of the mystery, & enjoy tense soulful drama.