|
Just as three boys make a "forever friends" pact and write their names on the street's wet cement,
two men "arrest" one of them for defacing public property. He turns up after four days having gone through a traumatic experience. As they grow up however, they
drift away and seem not to be able to get together again. More than 25 years later, one night circumstances bring Jimmy (Sean Penn), Sean (Kevin Bacon) and Dave (Tim Robbins)
to face each other. Jimmy's favorite 19-year-old daughter has been brutally murdered. In spite of meticulous investigations, handled by assigned Massachusetts's police
investigator Sean and partner Whitey (Laurence Fishburne), Jimmy does his own search for the killer because he wants revenge. Two very suspicious leads are being checked on: the
gun that killed Katie, which appears to have been used in a previous crime, and Dave who comes home that night from the bar about the same time the girl is murdered, with blood on
his hands. Dave, who has never healed from his traumatic experience as a boy, in the hands of two pedophiles believes he has killed a misbehaving young man, an incident of
which there is no report or news. Jimmy thinks otherwise and decides what to do.
The film is carefully and cleverly plotted that it easily holds the attention and the feelings of
the audience. Those who like character and plot development, not simply continuous action, will find the movie absorbing and easily empathize with what the characters are
going through. Having Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins as the main cast, the felt acting shows realistically how each man, Jimmy, Sean and Dave feels in his personal
familial relations and circumstances, and how they perceive and handle their necessity to relate to one another. Jimmy's reaction to his loss of Katie for instance, shows
how utterly painful this is to him. The handling of the technical and artistic elements is very effective. As Clint Eastwood decided to concentrate only on directing
MysticRiver, and not act in it, this is one of his best, if not the best directed movies.
More than a simple mystery film, MysticRiver
attempts to show how past bonding among friends is never lost, in spite of long separation; it can still bind them to each other. There is however, the doting love of a father that overwhelms his feeling for his friend, with whom he has just started to reconnect. Sean has his own problem of dealing with Dave as a suspect, and Jimmy who is impatient for results. The three are shown as good fathers. As a family man, Jimmy is appreciative of his second wife, Annabeth's (Laura Linney) support and that of his two other daughters. Dave has the perfunctory care of wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden) but not enough because his disturbed character bothers her. Her loyalty is sorely tested. Sean is separated from his wife but there is hopeful sign of conciliation.
(Date Reviewed: December 11, 2003)
|
