Mystic River [2003] [DVD]

Based on the best-selling novel by Dennis Lehane, Clint Eastwood's flawless movie adaption of 'Mystic River' is now easily one of my new favourite films.

Here is one of those films that will instantly absorb you in. It's a haunting thriller, undeniably bleak and depressing, well written and acted out brilliantly by an impressive cast. Essentially, it is a murder mystery with a great deal of surrounding tragedy. It all starts when three schoolboy friends Jimmy Markam (Sean Penn), Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon), and Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins) are playing in the street. Jimmy, the leader and the 'tough' one of the group gets his two pals to write their names in wet cement where the pavement is being repaired. Two men pull over in a car, posing as policeman and abduct Dave, the 'frail' and 'weak' boy of the trio. Dave is abused for four days but eventually escapes. This tragic episode forever changes the lives of all three.

In the present day, Jimmy's 19 year daughter is brutally murdered and the three men are suddenly reconnected in life. Dave is a suspect and Sean is now a policeman who is determined to solve the case before Jimmy, now an ex-con, decides to take the law into his own hands.

'Mystic River' is nothing sort of a masterpiece. It's hard for me to imagine any of other actors who could better the performances of the men in this film. In particular, Tim Robbins is brilliant as the tormented male who is still damaged by the childhood rapes that he suffered all those years ago. He deservedly won the best actor award when this movie was released in 2003 to receive much critical acclaim itself including two academy award wins. This is now my favourite Clint Eastwood movie, if you have to see it, you'd be a fool to miss out what is my idea of a perfect film.

Highly recommended!

(Review of the Blu-ray version)

The book versus the film. It's an old argument, and in this case, outstanding though this film is, the book is even better.

Three 11-year-old boys play in the poorer streets of Boston, but one of them is persuaded to get into a car by two men posing as police officers. He's gone for four days and suffers dreadful abuse of a kind that the viewer can only imagine. Then the film moves forwards 30-odd years to the present day, and while two of the friends (Jimmy and Dave) are still in the same neighbourhood, the third - Sean - is now a homicide detective and living on the better side of town. A 19-year-old girl is brutally murdered, and Sean soon realises that she's Jimmy's daughter. Most of the rest of the film is devoted to finding out who did it, and there are some red herrings and surprises along the way. There's something of a race to track down the murderer, because Jimmy's done time and he wants to avenge his daughter's death in his own special way before Sean finds the killer by way of the police procedural process.

This is outstanding in every detail, with a great cast of actors at all levels. Sean Penn is just perfect as ex-con-gone-straight Jimmy (well, nearly straight), and Kevin Bacon as Sean and Tim Robbins as Dave quickly become the characters the readers of the book will have seen in their mind's eye - not necessarily in immediate appearance, but more so in their very different personalities. Penn and Robbins won Oscars for their performances in fact. It's high drama of the highest quality, and yet again hats off to Clint Eastwood for creating such a gem - he must surely be one of the best film directors around today. He produced the musical score too.

With further Oscar nominations for Eastwood as Best Director, Brian Helgeland for Best Writing and Screenplay, not to mention Marcia Gay Harden as Best Supporting Actress and the film itself nominated as Best Film, it's not surprising that it's as good as it is but awards and nominatons alone do not necessarily make for a great film; in this case they do, for this has to be one of the best films of its kind in recent years, if we're talking about mystery dramas. Eastwood is relatively faithful to the book of the same name by Dennis Lehane, but inevitably there are compromises. The most obvious to me was the Boston atmosphere, which played such a big part in the novel but is only occasionally on view in the film. Then there's the camaraderie among the three boys, and the bond they sealed back in the day; it was lovingly portrayed in the book and became its heart and soul. In the film I suppose there just wasn't the time to do that, but anyone unfamiliar with the novel won't know what's missing.

In spite of that, this is a great film, one in which all involved give of their best to produce a near flawless result: the writing, directing, acting and production style can't be faulted, it's a film worth buying rather than just renting. In Blu-ray the treats are enhanced of course, and this is one of those which looks like a high-def film from the first minute. The sound quality is excellent too. In case it wasn't already very clear, I give this Blu-ray film the highest recommendation; but I have to admit it - somehow the book is better still.

One of the great films of the 21st century so far.

Haunting drama about judgement, redemption and rejuvenation. While ostensibly a murder mystery the true wealth of mystic river lies in the human mystery surrounding the three main characters.

The film explores the limits to the value of friendship and the unimaginable cruelty of childhood abuse. Robbins' character has been tormented his entire life because of an incident of childhood abuse, as a result of this, another crime committed by Robbins and his wife's lack of trust - he is falsely accused of killing old friend Penn's daughter. He is betrayed by his wife to Penn, who is some kind of respected hoodlum in the community, his wife evidently trusts Penn more than her own husband. This is the moral of the film, Robbins was never able to form the same level of trust and understanding with his wife as the others were because of his childhood trauma and as a result his wife misjudges him and betrays him. In contrast to this, Penn's wife congratulates him when he tells her of his terrible crime, telling him he did what he did to protect his familly, her trust and loyalty is never in doubt.

The ending of the film is powerful stuff, we see the two survivors with their wives - playing happy famillies. Despite the reality of Penn's crimes he is able to exonerate himself of murder, forgive himself easily. Robbins himself was never able to forgive himself for the terrible shame of being a victim of abuse, doubly so because he is male. There was never any peace for him - unlike Penn he has no sin to bury - because the unique cruelty of being a victim of abuse means feeling the full-guilt and shame without having sinned. When you compare the injuries done to Robbins (as a child) and Penn and their respective recoveries from those injuries you conclude that there are worse crimes than murder.