Mystic River

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Mystic River

R

2003

2h 17m

Crime

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

89%

Tomatometer

203 Reviews

89%

Popcornmeter

100,000+ Ratings

When the daughter of ex-con Jimmy Markum is murdered, two of his childhood friends from the neighborhood are involved. Dave, a blue-collar worker, is the last person to see her alive, while Sean, a homicide detective, is heading up the case.

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Critics Consensus

Anchored by the exceptional acting of its strong cast, Mystic River is a somber drama that unfolds in layers and conveys the tragedy of its story with visceral power.

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David Germain

Associated Press

Nov 12, 2018

Eastwood and his actors create a brooding drama whose events and interrelationships seem surreally improbable yet painfully authentic.

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Neil Norman

London Evening Standard

Jan 11, 2018

It is a film of magisterial, slow-burning power, one of the finest examples of recent American cinematic storytelling and certainly Eastwood's most mature film.

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Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

Dec 26, 2010

3/5

Powerful performances in graphic story. Only 16+.

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Grant Watson

Fiction Machine

Jan 21, 2025

8/10

At first one might assume the film has been set up to be a tense crime thriller. Instead it is a tragedy: the end result is inevitable from the opening scenes. The characters never express any possibility of doing something else.

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David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

Feb 15, 2021

Eastwood's film is rooted in a profound misreading, or more to the point, a profound ignorance of society and human relationships. His false and shallow premises lead the filmmaker to construct an unconvincing, fantastical drama.

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Micheal Compton

Bowling Green Daily News

Nov 15, 2019

Mystic River features a moving screenplay, solid direction and a superb cast highlighted by Sean Penn's Oscar-worthy performance.

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Tina L

@Tintin12 5 days ago

Am I missing something? What a slow burn leading to an underwhelming climax.

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Annie G

@anniegordon Sep 16, 2026

I'm not sure why the two actors won academy awards. It was a dismal movie in my opinion with a subpar plot.

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Robert P

@Superbad Sep 8, 2026

Mystic River is a great movie!

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L Nguyn G

@Kev1n_L33 Sep 7, 2026

The finals moments of the movie are insanely tense.

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Cinema S

@cinema_sensei Sep 4, 2026

I didn’t expect this to hit me this hard. The performances are incredible, especially Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, and the whole movie feels painfully real. It’s slow and extremely bleak, and some of the characters make decisions that are hard to watch, but that only made the tragedy feel more disturbing. The ending really stayed with me.

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Tony F

@Batmorph Sep 2, 2026

Although the performance by Sean Penn was dramatically oiutstanding the opposite end of the bar, emotionally pictured Kevin Bacon (as the good guy, for a change) as a cool, pragmatic detective, I loved the chemistry between him and Fishburne's character; it kept the plot moving nicely along, a slow brooding piece of brilliant cinema thanks to all involved, including the direction of Clint Eastwood. I immediately noticed his lullaby tune used throughout the movie, which had a similarity to The Unforgiven.

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Clint Eastwood

Director

Sean Penn

Jimmy Markum

Tim Robbins

Dave Boyle

Kevin Bacon

Sean Devine

Laurence Fishburne

Whitey Powers

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Synopsis

When the daughter of ex-con Jimmy Markum is murdered, two of his childhood friends from the neighborhood are involved. Dave, a blue-collar worker, is the last person to see her alive, while Sean, a homicide detective, is heading up the case.

Director: Clint Eastwood
Producer: Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Judie Hoyt
Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland, Dennis Lehane
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co: Malpaso Company, Village Roadshow Prod.
Rating: R (Violence|Language)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 15, 2003, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 2, 2009
Box Office (Gross USA): $90.1M
Runtime: 2h 17m
Sound Mix: Surround

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