American drama doesn't get any more meaty and muscular than this.
Mystic River (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:191
Fresh:167
Rotten:24
Average Rating:7.8/10
Consensus: A thriller of great emotional power.
Theatrical Release:Oct 15, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $90,050,414
Synopsis: 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... 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. [More]
Starring: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden
Starring: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurence Fishburne, Laura Linney
Director: Clint Eastwood
Director: Clint Eastwood
Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland
Producer: Robert Lorenz, Judie G. Hoyt, Clint Eastwood
Composer: Lennie Niehaus
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for Mystic River
Mystic falters occasionally, but I respect its effort and I'm happy to see Mr. Eastwood growing as a director.
While not quite the equal of the novel, it's more complex, emotionally-charged and better acted than the average Hollywood thriller.
With characters that don't belong in the film and resolutions that seem mere fantasy, Mystic River never surpasses adequacy.
It is in many ways Eastwood's tightest movie for some time, and certainly his darkest since Unforgiven; indeed, the ending offers as corrosive an assessment of the limits of American justice as anything in his career.
A sprawling story that benefits from Eastwood's stripped-down approach. There are no jive talking Tarantino exchanges here, and no crowd-pleasing pyrotechnics.
The film births wonderful performances from all three lead actors, as well as Marcia Gay Harden, who�s palpable in preternatural ways, Thomas Guiry as the boy in love with Jimmy's daughter, and virtually everyone else with a strip of film time.
It's a stately, handsome-looking studio drama that, for me, never really became emotionally or intellectually involving.
... frustratingly humorless, harsh, and hollow, lacking the cohesiveness, color and convincing characterization of Eastwood's masterpiece Unforgiven.
Penn and Robbins, especially, are absolutely riveting in this haunting tale of lives lost.
This is an involving movie that held my interest for all but the last five of its 137-minute running time, despite an ending that seems to tolerate murder and vigilante justice.
Sean Penn is so frighteningly good in this movie that he outdoes even the best of his earlier work.
Mystic River explores the quirks of fate that make us who and what we are.
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