Mystic River is Clint Eastwood’s 24th directorial attempt. Yeah, 24!! His last big hit has to be Unforgiven back in ’92 that won him an Academy Award for Best Director. I don’t think Mystic River will have the same results.
The story starts off with three young friends growing up together in a rough section of Boston, Jimmy Markum (Penn), Dave Boyle (Robbins) and Sean Devine (Bacon). They spend their days playing stickball and getting in and out of trouble, but things change when one day Dave is kidnapped, resulting in an event that changes their friendships forever.
After Dave’s escape from the kidnappers we are sent 25-years into the future where the boys are now grown men and sent into a tailspin as Jimmy’s 19-year-old daughter (Rossum) is murdered. This time as opposed to splitting the group up this event brings them back together as the circle gets tighter and tighter around the truth of what really happened.
Before mentioning too much more I should also mention that Dave came home late that same night Jimmy’s daughter was murdered covered in blood from a beating that he told his wife (Harden) he gave to a bum that was trying to mug him.
So what role does everyone play in this little mystery? Sean Devine is now a police officer working with his partner Whitey Powers (Fishburne) on solving the case, Dave is set up as the prime suspect as he was seen that night at the same bar Jimmy’s daughter was at, and also his wife is acting a little on the crazy side ever since her husband came home a bloody mess. Then to Jimmy who has all his street thugs combing the streets for any news they can get on the daughter’s murder.
Mystic is filled with loop holes and misdirection in an attempt to blind you from what is going to happen in the end, but so many of the hidden truths are so obvious that it takes a lot away from what could have been a good movie.
The Mystic characters are also so ruthless and unforgiving of their sins that it is hard to have any compassion for what happens to any of them.
Jimmy Markum is nothing more than a hoodlum that has had trouble all throughout his life. Sean Devine is a cop that has little sympathy for any of his old friends and the relationship he has with his estranged wife is far from ordinary and just gets in the way of the production.
The only character worth caring for is Dave, since his childhood tragedy he has slowly lost his mind creating the image of a monster, and you can only feel sorrow for his character and hatred for anyone that would do that to someone.
But caring for Dave is not enough to hold this picture together.
“Murder mysteries are usually only about solving the crime,” says Eastwood, “but in this case the story shows how, beyond the murder, all of the participants’ lives have been altered by the crime. One gets to see the impact a violent act has had, many years after the fact. It’s that tragic circle — all three of these men have unresolved issues in their lives. They have all been traumatized by the past. All became damaged goods.”
What Eastwood says here rings true, “All became damaged goods.” Each character, besides Dave, is a cold-hearted human being that demands very little if any respect, while the acting in Mystic may be spectacular the story and the characters make it really hard to enjoy such a dark and depressing picture.
There never really is a good explanation as to why Dave’s kidnapping affected Jimmy and Sean. Yes, they were there, and what happened was traumatic, but the only real change to Sean and Jimmy was that none of them really spoke together any more. The effect on Dave is obvious but how it changed the other two is a mystery to me.
Betrayal would have been a good title for this film as characters turn on each other and very little has to do with the Mystic River (except it makes a good place to put a dead body). I am sure a ton of reviewers will congratulate Clint Eastwood on an emotionally heartbreaking picture, but I found this one to be depressing and upsetting, and in no way entertaining.
