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Directed by Clint Eastwood |
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| Sean Penn |
Marcia Gay Harden |
| Tim Robbins |
Laura Linney |
| Kevin Bacon |
Laurence Fishburne |
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| Childhood friends are drawn together during the disturbing investigation of the murder of one of their daughters. |
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| One-word View: Gripping |
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| All right. I have to get this out of the way first. Sean Penn (Jimmy) is just phenomenal. From whence he draws this mysterious talent, I haven’t a clue, but I’ve yet to be disappointed. Well, there was Shanghai Surprise, but we can just try to forget that one. As a matter of fact, in Mystic River, he was so powerful that he completely overshadowed the talented Kevin Bacon (Sean) as the insightful, not-too-tainted detective and nearly stole all of Tim Robbins’ (Dave) thunder as the emotionally shattered, suspicious third prong of this childhood trio. Adding to Dave’s bizarre situation is his slightly unbalanced wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden); Marcia did a fine job. She is so ignorant and so weak that I really wanted to rip her from the screen and just shake her. And without hesitation, I would have also pulled Laurence Fishburne’s annoying Whitey down for a good shake, as well. They were wretched characters. Now, that’s acting.
The story revolves around the search for the murderer of Jimmy’s daughter. The cops are looking for the killer, but so are Jimmy’s friends: the ones who laughed when asked if they would ever think about giving up their criminal lifestyles. This vigilante-style pursuit is a direct order from Jimmy, himself for he is pretty darn close to being the Godfather of this close-knit Boston neighborhood, with his scary and loving wife, (Laura Linney) right by his side. She, by the way, displayed about as much tenderness as Connie (Talia Shire) in Godfather III. Remember, how she poisoned the old guy with that pastry? Cold, loyal, and deadly – the recipe for a great gal. In actuality, loyalty was really at the heart of everything that happened: either an intense, blinding commitment to it or a devastating lack of it. In both scenarios, people got hurt. My stomach tightened several times during the movie. It was intense and I was completely absorbed. Eastwood’s direction was a little off a couple of times, a few superfluous shots, etc, but nothing could detract from the performances. See it.
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