To Live and Let Die . Review on Mystic River Movie

MYSTIC RIVER (2003)

Directed by CLINT EASTWOOD

Cast: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon

Running Time: 137 min.

Nominated for 6 Oscars (Including Best Picture & Best Director) and won 2 for Best Actor(Sean Penn), Actor in a Supporting Role (Tim Robbins)

Based on novel by Dennis Lehane

WHAT HAPPENS

Three boys ? Jimmy, Sean and Dave ? play street hockey on a deserted road in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. When their ball goes down a storm drain, Jimmy suggests they do something momentous ? etch their names in wet cement left to dry. Jimmy and Sean have, and David is halfway through it, when two men drive up in a car, one steps out, and demands to know what they have been up to. He asks them where they live. When David says he lives at a distance, they pick him up and only later does he manage to escape them ? scared, sodomised and scarred for life. Twenty-five years pass. Jimmy Markum?s (Sean Penn) 19-year-old daughter, Katy is found dead in a ditch and the investigating officers Sean Devine & Whitey Powers (Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne) get after all possible leads and come up with 2 main suspects, Katy?s boyfriend, Brendan Harris and Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins). What happens next forms the crux of the story.

SO?? WHY DO I WATCH IT?

Clint Eastwood directs this tale of murder, deception, and revenge with a style only a few masters can match. He?s Clint Eastwood, people!! That should be reason enough to go watch the movie. And as a special treat he also directs the music of the movie. Ha!

Sean Penn plays Jimmy Markum (ex-con and store owner), a man who cannot come to terms with the fact that someone could be vile enough to murder his daughter. He plays the grief bit to the hilt. The anguish, the pain, the hurt in his eyes and in his acting is so palpable, so real that you actually want to go up and console him. What less could you expect from the man who recieved his third Best Actor nomination for I AM SAM (2003)?

Dave Boyle is essayed wonderfully by the versatile yet grossly understated Tim Robbins. Dave is a troubled man. Plagued by his past and unsure about his future, he is quiet, unassuming, and a very worried man. His only son and his doting wife adore him, but he has murdered someone recently. Who? we do not know for sure until the end of the movie. It certainly isn?t Jimmy?s daughter.

Kevin Bacon is investigating officer Sean Devine. He is a man of a few words, kind yet not entirely unfeeling. His moments of indecision are the highlights of his role in this movie. Kevin Bacon was last seen in HOLLOW MAN (2000).

The cinematography is eye-catching. A murder mystery is expected to have blood and gore all over the place. Yet there is none. And as such no scene is ever repulsive. It is a realistic story that exacts performances that remain forever etched in memory. The editing is crisp, the dialogues clear. None of the mumbling one usually associates with Hollywood movies of the DRAMA genre. There are only a few twists in the entire story. It never questions nor suggests anything, only depicts. This will go down in my books as one of the most superbly restrained stories ever told.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Pay close attention to every scene. This is a poignant tale and hence every word uttered is filled with meaning.

Words are not everything, though. Watch Sean Penn redefine pain, restraint, anguish through his acting.

Watch Tom Robbins exude a disturbing air as the mentally scarred Dave, wary and cunning. Watch Marcia Gay Harden play Celeste Boyle, Dave?s wife and you may never want to say ?I do?.

The only cloud on the otherwise tautly told story is the idea that you can get away with anything, including murder.

Stuff of what all-time classics are made of.