American drama doesn't get any more meaty and muscular than this.
Mystic River (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 190
Fresh: 166
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: In Clint Eastwood's MYSTIC RIVER, a murder mystery in South Boston unites three men who have been friends since childhood. Grippingly powerful performances from the entire cast--Sean Penn, Tim... In Clint Eastwood's MYSTIC RIVER, a murder mystery in South Boston unites three men who have been friends since childhood. Grippingly powerful performances from the entire cast--Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Marcia Gay Harden, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, and Laura Linney--combined with gritty photography, an exceptionally emotional script, and a convincing working-class Boston setting make this film one of Eastwood's most consistent and penetrating works. Though they live in the same houses where they grew up, Jimmy (Penn), Dave (Robbins), and Sean (Bacon) have drifted apart over time. Their distance is due to a disturbing and violent episode that occurred when they were children. Even now, as adults married with kids, they have never managed to overcome their fear and guilt about what happened. Dave and his wife (Harden) still live next door to Jimmy, who is married to a tough-sexy blond (Linney) and has three daughters. When Jimmy's 19-year-old girl is murdered, he turns to Sean, who works as a policeman, and delivers an ultimatum: find the killer fast or I'll go after him myself. Little do they know, the culprit is the last person they'd ever suspect. This movie screened in October 2003 as part of the 41st New York Film Festival organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. [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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