Customer Reviews

Mystic River (Widescreen)

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

No film I've seen since Barbara Streisand's "Prince of Tides" was less worthy of it's Academy Award nominations than this turkey. And no film I've ever seen was less deserving of the awards it won. Aside from an average story and murky Boston location shots, there was little else good to say about this film, whose principal theme was eerily familiar to another bad movie, "Ghost Story".

The acting, in particular, was poor. Had Marcia Gay Harden not portrayed an interesting, multidimensional character, there'd have been nothing good to say about any of them.

Sean Penn played the same role he has played since "Falcon and the Snowman" and "Bad Boys" -- the brooding, insolent killer with bad judgment -- yet somehow won an Academy Award for this image. This says more about the Motion Picture Academy and its processes than about this film, which is full of bad acting and direction.

Sadly, Penn's lack of subtlety was only the beginning of the mess. Tim Robbins, who also won an Academy Award as a pitiful victim, was so miscast as a Boston resident it was laughable. The direction given Robbins, Penn, Lawrence Fishburne and Kevin Bacon -- especially in the use of their Boston accents -- was stilted and resulted in unbelievable characterizations.

Boston lifers must have laughed out loud listening to these dimbulbs try to speak Beantownese. No one could be expected to suspend disbelief to that extent!

The fault for this overacting, bad langauge and one-dimensional acting belongs to director Clint Eastwood, a Hollywood insider on scale with "Pretty Woman" Julie Roberts and California Gov. Arnold "Terminator" Schwarzenegger. Had a lesser director or an independent like Spike Lee or John Favreau done this, no Hollywood entity would have rushed forward to reward their effort with awards.

It's great to be Clint Eastwood, I guess. He could at least have used his influence to bring a language coach to the set. One of the elements that makes "The Sopranos" the best program in television history is its language coaching, especially the on-set coach for star James Gandolfini. Even with that, this film would still have been average but would have been more believable had a coach instructed these dummies in the proper use of Boston English. Hell, they even did that with the Louisiana Cajuns in "Southern Comfort"!

Among the movie's other vagueries was the telephone relationship with Bacon's ex-wife. It put a smile on Bacon's face after two hours but played no role in the film. More important, it did nothing to dispel the memory of Bacon competing with Gregory Peck's portrayal of Captain Ahab as the most wooden acting job in Hollywood history. Perhaps Medusa was on the set and turned him to stone for two hours, only to relent once he made up with the wife?

It has been written that the average films that win Academy Awards have the largest advertisinig and promotional budgets and the greatest influence by Hollywood insiders. "Mystic River" is the case study in this postulate, winning several awards and being nominated for many others when it was, in fact, deserving of none.

This is not happy ending kids, this is by far the most agonizing, frustrated, confused, and worst I've felt after viewing a film. That's why it's so brilliant. It makes no apologies, and doesn't cover up or sugar coat the reality of life. The performances are first-rate, top-notch hitters. Every actor involved gave the performace of their careers. Penn and Robbins earned their Oscars with the dept and truth they brought to their characters. Eastwood is a master at filmaking, and this is definitely a masterpiece. If you want a hard hitting, no prisoners drama, then this is absoultly your movie. I highly recommend this film and DVD.

This movie was good until I got to the lazy ending. Great actors who did a great job, but what were they thinking? Glad I rented it instead of paying $9 to see it. Let me ruin in for you: it's always the guy you least expect that's the killer. Shocking. THAT'S never been done before. SO original.

Wow, this movie started great and had me thinkin who did it form the beginning. There was a great cast, and some great acting by Tim Robbins, but.....

WTF was up with the last 10 minutes??? It was like clicking the channel button on the remote....
Right when Sean Penn's character starts to develop, and to learn something from his pathetic life....they throw the last scene in with his women telling him he's king....

sorry, but that scene and everything after it was completely lame, and should have been cut from the movie all together.

It disturbed me so much that I have to give it a 2, since I will never "by choice" see this movie again. It's too bad because up until then it was a good movie.

It's uncommon to find some of the finest acting, scripting, and filmmaking that Hollywood can offer all within one motion picture. That's what makes Mystic River so extraordinary.
From the very first scene, Mystic River induces the viewer into a gripping tale that revolves around Jimmy Markum, Dave Boyle, and Sean Devine; three childhood friends who reunite as grown men when Markum's daughter is tragically murdered.
Sean Penn stars as Jimmy Markum, the grieving father who swears vengeance for his daughter's death. An ex-con, Markum utilizes his criminal ties to seek out the identity of his daughter's killer, with intentions to enforce his own justice. Penn succeeds in realistically portraying the emotionally unstable Markum, which can possibly earn him his first Oscar after falling short on three previous opportunities.
Tim Robbins plays the soft-spoken Dave Boyle, whose social disability is a result of being a victim of a disturbing crime as a child. Although he hasn't received as much acclaim as Penn, Robbins is equally effective, if not, better at times in his performance on camera.
The last of the three friends is Kevin Bacon's character, Sean Devine; a detective whose job conflicts with personal life when he takes on the murder case of Markum's daughter. Despite being billed high in the credits, Bacon receives limited screen-time and is often times overshadowed by Laurence Fishburne, who plays his partner, Whitey Powers.
This is one of several lapses that occurred when adapting Dennis Lehane's novel into a motion picture screenplay. The blame lies with the editing department more so than Academy Award-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland, whose chosen dialogue keeps the audience hooked for the 137 minute duration.
Without the superb deliverance of the script by the actors, however, Helgeland's work may have been overlooked. Rounding out the stellar cast is Laura Linney and Academy Award-winner Marcia Gay Harden, who plays Robbin's wife, Celeste Boyle.
Directed by Clint Eastwood, the filmmaking of Mystic River is what really puts it over the top. Eastwood combines challenging shots with his self-composed score to construct breathtaking scenes that otherwise, would have been less memorable.
Mystic River contains all the components one wants to experience when watching a film; a compelling story, talented acting, and visual excitement. If there has been one movie worth seeing this entire year, Mystic River is an uncanny contender.

This was one of my favorite films of 2003. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins both deserved the Oscars they took home. My advice to anyone reading this review is save 10-15 dollars and buy the version with just the film on it. The Special Edition contains nothing more than some of the most boring interviews, which go on for over an hour or two, and a dull commentary track. No insight on the making of the film or the casting. The Soundtrack is decent but not worth the extra bucks. Please take my advice and buy the "bare bones" version of this outstanding film and nothing more.

I cannot go into how many ways this films bothers me or I would be playing spoiler. Oh, how I wished I had read the spoilers first!

It was tightly directed, though with a style and feel that echoed a much better film, A Perfect World. But unlike A Perfect World, where the were good guys, bad buys and bad guys who had good in them, this film has no one that is likeable, no one you can respect. Worse, it has no remorse, and that is SO sad, no redemption.

Bacon, Penn, and Robinson put in strong performances in their going nowhere roles. I admired Eastwood's flair in A Perfect World, an emotional film that touched you on all levels. Only this movie...well, you want to wash after watching it. You cannot empathize with Penn's character, even though the murder of his 19-year-old daughter is the focal point of the film. Sorry, to point all the problems of this film one would have to go into spoilers left and right (I wish someone had told me the spoilers before!). There are devises that have no place in the film, that do nothing to further the storyline, just Eastwood's sense of quirky? Quirky worked in A Perfect World, quirky worked in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Quirky in this films was an insult to the intelligence of the viewer. I have loved Eastwood since his Rowdy Yates days, and marveled all the films he has starred in or directed ever since. But this one just is so pointless. This movie has a lack of honor, of true caring, of heart and it just hurts to see such talent put to such a useless waste of 2  hours.

My best advice - Rent this film before you buy or - be sure to read all the BAD reviews before making up your mind. Most people will not enjoy the senseless violence and to no end. Most people will not like the total remorse in nearly all the characters.

I was quite surprised at how bad this movie was. Perhaps it was just me, but I was looking forward to a Unforgiven-type directoral masterpiece from Mr. Eastwood and the stars Robbins and Penn. Given the hype this movie recieved (and the oscar nods to its 2 main stars and director Eastwood) I was really ready to sink my viewing teeth into something substantial.

Unfortunately, this movie was as stale as a bag of month-old potato chips. I never really came to symphathize at all with Sean Penn's character, even though his daughter was murdered. I mean, seriously, how can you symphathize with a criminal (Penn's character) who barely was involved in his kid's life to begin with?

Perhaps if the movie had shown a more deeper relationship between Penn and the kid then I could have cared more about the outcome. As it was all my sympathy went to Tim Robbins character, sexually molested as a child and then basically forgotten by his so-called "buddies". In my opinion Tim Robbins is the only reason to watch this movie. He walks around with an aire of utter hopelessness (reminiscent of the character he played in Jacob's Ladder), and yet he tries so hard to get passed the mental anguish of his past and make it through each day as an adult that by the end you are cheering for him.

Which brings me to the other reason why this movie stinks - the ending.

Like in a good novel, the reader/viewer doesn't want to be cheated in the end. I don't want to give away the ending, but be warned - it stinks.

All in all there really wasn't any substance to most of the characters, and I found myself toward the end wondering why I should even finish watching it. I like to be absorbed by characters played with heart and substance. Watching these jokers (except for Robbins) was like watching carboard cutouts being moved around on a stage.

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In great dramas, people aren't perfect, but their mistakes make sense. In melodramas, their mistakes don't; they occur only because the screenwriter wants them to.

Mystic River is a horrid melodrama, Hollywood's worst in years.

Pick any three-minute segment, jump in the shoes of any major character, and you'll find at least two instances where common sense would completely unravel the plot. There would be:

phone calls to doctors
routine checks on how the investigation is going

alerts to detectives
ridiculous assumptions thrown out the window
obvious suspects brought in for questioning
DNA and blood evidence rapidly analyzed and suspects eliminated
direct confrontations and/or backchannel neighborhood chats to double-check facts
and, oh, maybe a teeny bit of thinking before irreversible acts are committed.

None of this happens, of course, because the screenwriter creates a world without accepting its rules. The major characters are supposed to have lived in the same rough neighborhood and known each other all or most of their lives. But the lifelong aggressors uniformly jump to conclusions, as though they've never served time or seen other hoodlums get burned by assumptions. And the lifelong victims never seem to have their radar up around shady characters.

So we're asked to believe in a tough, jaded world where all statements are taken at face value, where no one seems to have ever seen a crime movie or played a single hand of poker, and where seasoned homicide cops don't seem to have heard of fingerprints, basic procedure, or internal affairs investigations. It's totally implausible.

In a decent drama, Dave never gets in the Savage brothers' car. Not with his history, not knowing the Savage brothers, not given the circumstances. But he gets in, because that's the only way the screenwriter gets Dave to the next scene. Ugh.

As a counterpoint, check out any Farrelly brothers movie. Yeah, they're comedies, but they follow the rules of drama: the characters are put in situations they take seriously, and make decisions that, given who they are, make lots of sense. The funny comes from sensibly navigating absurd situations. Unlike the funny in Mystic River, which inadvertently jumps out from umpty-jillion RIDICULOUS plot twists.

Me Myself and Irene is a better cop drama than this overhyped clunker. Kingpin is a vastly better study of victims and villains. And no, I'm not kidding. Skip MR.

There are certain actors who after awhile don't seem to act anymore. They just live off a certain carefully crafed screen persona, and all their performances are a variation of this persona. Examples are Clark Gable's tough-talking Man's Man, Hugh Grant's bumbling English charmer, or Drew Barrymore's giggly airhead. With Mystic River, we now have a fourth such actor: Sean Penn's Unhinged Angry White Man.
Mystic River (directed by Clint Eastwood) is overall a very fine drama, about three Boston boys (Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, and Sean Penn) whose lives are intertwined tragically. Tim Robbins and Sean Penn both received Oscars for their roles, but IMO it's Robbins who was more deserving. He's alternately creepy and pitiful. I never really remember Tim Robbins performances -- he's usually vanilla bland, his flat accent and unremarkable looks making him a more liberal Kevin Costner. So his performance in Mystic River was a pleasant surprise to me.
Sean Penn, OTOH, from the very first shot in the movie is a glaring, sneering Dangerous Man. He works in a convenience store, but his hands shake as he lights a cigarette. He kisses his daughter in a way that's supposed to show his Loving Side, but it's done so intensely it seems either incestuous or creepy. During the course of the movie he howls and screams, a tattooed bomb of Primal Rage. Despite the scenery chewing, he's not very moving. He has a particularly irritating way of emphasizing "my DAUGHTER" over and over again in dialogue that sounds rather phony. People who are particularly close to anyone don't talk like that. Of course he won an Oscar, over an (IMO) more deserving Bill Murray.
As is often the case with these crime/psychological dramas, the supporting cast is the finest. Laura Linney plays Sean Penn's wife, and her role unfortunately looks heavily editted. I suppose this is so her final speech is all the more shocking, but I would have liked to see a little more character development. Marcia Gay Harden, Kevin Bacon, and assorted others are all very fine. There's a weird storyline involving Kevin Bacon and his estranged wife that also smacks of being heavily editted.
By the way, the movie takes place in the working class nabes of Boston. Anyone who's spent even a little time up in Boston (as I have) will find the appearing-and-disappearing faux Boston accents from all the actors a little distracting.
As a final note, Mystic River is based on a book. I havent read the book but someone who did told me Clint Eastwood changed the ending slightly.