Warner Brothers’ marketing tactics worked on me. At the Consolidated Theaters Grande, just off Friendly Avenue in the Friendly Shopping Center, I shelled out my six dollars (with my Guilford ID. $8.00 for adults, $5.50 for children and seniors) for a ticket to Mystic River, and another five for popcorn and a beverage. I was on a mission. I had to know what this film was about.
The movie starts out focusing on three childhood friends playing street hockey in a small blue-collar section of Boston. After one of the boys is left traumatized after being abducted, held captive and victimized for four days by two men pretending to be police officers, it is clear to the audience that the three pals will drift apart in years to come.
We are then introduced to the boys grown up.
Sean Penn plays Jimmy Marcus, an ex-con and widower whose priority is the happiness of his second wife, Annabeth (Laura Linney), and his three daughters. Kevin Bacon is Sean Devine, a homicide detective trying to balance his work with the pain of his recent separation from a wife who continues to call, never speaking, but sitting silently with the phone to her ear. Tim Robbins is Dave Boyle, a husband and father, who is still trying to forget the horrors and violation that he experienced in his adolescence.
The three old friends have not fallen completely out of touch, but their relationships now amount to nothing more than an occasional “hello” around the old neighborhood in which they all still reside. Their lives remain relatively separate from one another until Jimmy’s 19-year-old daughter, Katie (Emmy Rossum), is found murdered. Sean is assigned to the case, Dave is suddenly a suspect, and Jimmy is determined to find the killer(s) before the police do.
The quality of the film seems to remain a confident factor in the reviews of many individuals. The performances were superb; Penn’s performance as an outraged and desperate father is made believable by not overplaying is role and not showing too much. Bacon was convincing at trying to separate his emotional ties from his job obligations, and Robbins’ presentation of the emotionally troubled family man was moving to say the least. The writing was truthful, yet engaging, and not surprisingly, Eastwood’s role as director was played out brilliantly. The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Chicago Sun-Times have all deemed the film “Oscar worthy.” Though most twists and turns in the plot were genuinely well executed, the merit to the conclusion of the film has been somewhat debatable. First-year Brandon Sasnett claimed the ending of the movie to be “trite” and “disappointing.” While he felt that the film copped out in its conclusion, sophomore Sasha Spoerri disagreed. “It left me with unanswered questions. I wanted to know more, and I think that’s why I liked it. I like having to go back and watch a movie over again, and pick up on things I missed.