Mystic River

2003 | USA | R | cinesia : 16

official site :

DIRECTOR : Clint Eastwood

CAST : Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Kevin Chapman, Laura Linney ...

WRITER : Brian Helgeland

PRODUCER : Clint Eastwood, Judie Hoyt

COMPOSER : Clint Eastwood, Lennie Niehaus

STUDIO : Village Roadshow Pictures

DISTRIBUTOR : Warner Bros.

RUNTIME : 2 hours 17 minutes

LANGUAGE : English

GENRE : Drama / Crime / Mystery

USA

October 15, 2003

Switzerland

October 15, 2003

We bury our sins, we wash them clean.

When they were kids growing up together in a rough section of Boston, Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn), Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins) and Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon) spent their days playing stickball on the street, the way most boys did in their blue-collar neighborhood of East Buckingham. Nothing much ever happened in their neighborhood. That is, until Dave was forced to take the ride that would change all of their lives forever. Twenty-five years later, the three find themselves thrust back together by another life altering event – the murder of Jimmy’s 19-year-old daughter. Now a cop, Sean is assigned to the case and he and his partner (Laurence Fishburne) are charged with unraveling the seemingly senseless crime. They must also stay one step ahead of Jimmy, a man driven by an all consuming rage to find his daughter’s killer. Connected to the crime by a series of circumstances, Dave is forced to confront the demons of his own past. Demons that threaten to destroy his marriage and any hope he may have for a future. As the investigation tightens around these three friends, an ominous story unfolds that revolves around friendship, family and innocence lost too soon.

Clint Eastwood was reading the paper when he found a synopsis of Dennis Lehane's last novel, called Mystic River. Immediately charmed by the story and by the cinematographic potential of the book, he decided to contact Brain Helgeland, a script-writer of Boston.

It's in Boston, the same location in which the action of the book happens, that the movie was shot.

Produced with a limited budget, lain down by Warner Bros., Mystic River is a classical directing, according to Clint Eastwood, without any special-effects, resting on the shoulders of the actors and their sincerity.

Caesar's review

posted on
August 21, 2005

Something new made out of an old recipe

Clint Eastwood gives us a good film whose model isn’t that new. Even though similar pictures have been made, this one is still very captivating. The wonderful cast, only experienced actors, only receives a grade of 4 from me because of a Sean Penn who apparently doesn’t know how to cry. In fact after having seen his face contortioned in many different grimaces we finally understood that he was trying to cry, and didn’t suffer from intestine ulcers… Sorry about that. And then there’s another little thing… unfortunately I found that the destiny of Tim Robbins’ character was way to easy to predict, already very early in the movie. But these two things put aside, this motion picture is flanked with a delightfully intriguing story and a nicely professional realisation. Everybody’ll try to find who the killer is… and everybody’ll be wrong. That’s the whole magic of this very well told story.

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Pascal's review

posted on
October 22, 2005

A satisfying detective story but nothing more

Although the movie has a great scenario and the presence of Clint Eastwood behind the camera has a positive influence on it, it unfortunately remains relative foreseeable. The actors performances are various, Whereas Kevin Bacon find here a role that suites him perfectly, Sean Penn appears dull and less convincing. Nevertheless, the intrigue is great and the details that mutate a banal detective story into an artful chess game don’t miss. In conclusion, this “elaborated Colombo” remains a strong piece, sinning only by his classicism (if this is a default) and by the sincerity lack of several of it’s characters.

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