Mystic River is
a masterpiece, one which Clint Eastwood made sure will leave you feeling messed
up and elevated at the same time. The thing that catches you is the acting
proficiency of the principal actors. They took their time to study their
characters, with Tim Robbins, to me, being the most effective of them all.
Eastwood’s
directorial prowess is showcased in this flick; he takes you on a journey of
social decadence, the pains of betrayal, and the unlikely implications of child
molestation.
Mystic River was
shot in Boston, and it is an adaptation of the 2001 novel of the same name by
Dennis Lehane. The book and movie plot are about three boys who grow up as
friends in Boston—Dave (Tim Robbins), Sean (Kevin Bacon), and Jimmy (Sean
Penn). While the boys were playing around in the neighborhood street, Dave was
abducted by child molesters who were pretending to be police officers.
After days of
regular molestation, Dave escapes and finds his way back home. But the trauma
of the molestation messes him up emotionally and mentally, making him a little
unstable and hard to understand.
25 years later,
Sean has grown to become a homicide detective, Jimmy is an ex-convict who
currently runs a convenience store, and Dave has a blue-collar job, still
haunted by his abduction. Jimmy and Dave are related by marriage, with Dave
marrying Jimmy’s sister.
One night,
Jimmy's daughter disappears, and her body is found brutally murdered.
Coincidentally, Dave comes home to his wife covered in blood, rattling that he
fought off a mugger and "bashed his head into the concrete," possibly
killing him. Sean is then assigned to investigate the murder, and the three
childhood friends meet up again.
Nominated for
six Academy Awards, Sean Penn won Best Actor, and Tim Robbins won Best
Supporting Actor (those were the two awards the movie went home with), making Mystic
River the first film to win both awards since Ben-Hur in 1959.
The movie also
won two Golden Globe Awards for Sean Penn and Tim Robbins in the Best Actor and
Best Supporting Actor categories. Penn and Robbins also won many more accolades
from other, not-so-notable award bodies.
Mystic River is a classic movie that holds its own in the collection of greats. It is one that I advise any movie lover to go buy off the shelf. This is a DVD you’ll want to tell others you own.
0 comments:
Post a Comment