Mystic River

With Clint Eastwood directing and with Tim Robbins and Sean Penn I thought this would be a great evening's viewing. My son also sat down to watch, only to find that the story is all about a boy who is attacked by a priest and another man. It was harrowing and left me having nightmares. Its true the acting is very good.

Shame on me for not knowing that Mystic River was directed by Clint Eastwood until AFTER I’d watched it (yes, somehow I must have missed his name in the opening credits – shame on me, I know). I was just watching it because of its pretty impressive ensemble cast, including Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins. We meet the three when they’re just boys and Tim Robbins gets abducted by two men. He later escapes, but carries the scars with him right the way into adulthood. When they’re grown up and have families of their own, Sean Penn’s nineteen-year old daughter is murdered and Tim Robbins is the primary suspect. Not only did I not know about Clint Eastwood’s involvement, but I also didn’t know that it was based on a book. I haven’t read this, so I can’t compare the film to this. All I can say is that it’s a pretty intense ride. You need to be in the mood for something pretty heavy as there’s no ‘light-relief’ to be found here. All the characters play their respective parts well (Laurence Fishburne should get a special mention as he has the least character development and yet still brings more than a few nice touches to his role as supporting detective) and it was no wonder that it eventually went on to win Oscars. I won’t give too much away about the plot, but I can’t imagine many people will be disappointed with what they’ve watched. As long as you’re in the mood for something dark, this should suffice.

This needs to be seen twice, I say that, because as you watch it the first time, things become clearer as it progresses, on the second screening, when you know who is who and why they are who they are, you can understand them more,and appreciate what they all went through. A brilliant scripted and acted film. One of my faves.

I first saw this when it was released and enjoyed it more at the time. Typically simple film making from Eastwood that allowed the performances to shine through. Hard to fault the trio, particularly Penn but a lack of substance and a very poor ending did it no favours at all.

This film is very long and it takes a long time for the film to get going. It is only round the 75min mark that I actually decided that i would try and see it through to the end as up to that point I was waiting for something to happen and nothing did. Well, apart from Sean Penn walking round being dark and brooding and swearing like a trooper. There were excellent performances from Bacon and Fishburn and Tim Robbins was a difficult part which he played beautifully. Shame about Penn, who just played Penn and was totally unbelievable as I find him in most roles. It was a bit of a strange film for Eastwood but it did have the tell tale Eastwood characteristics - It's damn long!!! This is not a laugh a moment and it is a difficult watch as you don't really sympathise with any of the charcters. I guess in summing up I'm glad that i stuck through to the end as the second half was much better but if I had my time again I'd give it a miss.