Ice cream man found covered in hundreds and thousands.Police think he topped himself.
Ice cream man found covered in hundreds and thousands.Police think he topped himself.
Member since:28.04.2003
Reviews:55
Members who trust:70
Mystic River is an adaptation of a novel by Dennis Lehane a dark mystery thriller with a less than Hollywood ending. The screenplay by Brian Helgeland is well-crafted and Clint Eastwood directs with an easy morose pace that’s guaranteed to grip the audience and depress the mood. The haunting background music was also written by Eastwood.
The story takes place in a Boston suburb. Three young boys Jimmy, Sean and Dave are playing in the street and decide to write their names in some freshly laid cement. A man claiming to be a detective interrogates the boys and makes Dave Boyle get into his car. The subsequent events scar the boy for life. It is 30years later as adults when the three boy’s destinies are once more entangled that the film examines the effects of this event on the lives of them all.
Dave (Tim Robbins) comes home bloodstained and tells his wife he has been attacked by a mugger and may have killed him. She comforts him but becomes suspicious when there is no report in the papers and a young girl, who is the daughter of Jimmy Markham (Sean Penn) is subsequently found murdered. Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon) carries out the investigation, so the stage is set for the three boy’s lives to once more become inescapably entwined.
Tim Robbins plays the tortured mentally scarred victim in a very subtle way and only on one occasion overplays his hand. However his overall performance is both compelling and understated.
Jimmy is an ex-con who runs the local store but has a certain malevolent influence on the local community. He plays the part of the grieving and frustrated father in a sympathetic and low key manner with a menacing edge. He is intent on revenge and tries to find out who murdered his daughter. This is a great performance by Sean Penn who makes an excellent hard core ex con.
Sean, the detective, has a partner Whitey Powers (Laurence Fishbourne) who is a cynical cop of the old school. Sean however favours the steady methodical approach. This of course sets up a rivalry between the two men and provides a different view of the possible outcomes. Kevin Bacon plays the plodding detective in a way that is slightly more light hearted than the other actors which makes him stand out in the film.
The two wives played by Laura Linney (Jimmy’s wife) and Marcia Gay Harden (Dave’s wife) have only small roles but are essential to the build up of tension. Laura Linney is chilling as the wife protecting her children and her lifestyle. Her final speech to Jimmy does however jar a little from the previous steady flow of the film. Marcia Gay Harden plays the part of Celeste the suspicious and frightened wife in a subtle but effective way and her nervous taut conversation with Jimmy where she tries to tell him her fears is a chilling moment.
I liked the film although the word enjoy doesn’t sit well with such a dark film. I cared what happened to the people, which to me is essential ,if I am to engage with the story. There is a lot of tension, which is sometimes produced by a simple conversation between two people that have a shared history. There is no gratuitous violence but enough is suggested, for your imagination to produce a horrific picture. There are no special effects just the soft-footed brooding conversations between antagonists. The film will not uplift you but you will feel you have seen a well-crafted film with many good, and in some cases, great performances.
Available from Amazon at £15.99 Running time 137mins Certificate 15 I hired the DVD and there was only one disk. The extras on the disk were mainly about getting the film from page to screen with opinions from the director and actors.
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Production Year: 2003 - Drama - Director: Michael Winterbottom - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton, Om Puri, Jeanne Balibar
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Superior acting, writing and direction are on impressive display in the ... more
Oscar-winningMystic River, Clint Eastwood's 24th directorial outing and one of the finest films of 2003. Sharply adapted byLA ConfidentialOscar-winner Brian Helgeland from the nove...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Superior acting, writing and direction are on impressive display in the ... more
Oscar-winningMystic River, Clint Eastwood's 24th directorial outing and one of the finest films of 2003. Sharply adapted byLA ConfidentialOscar-winner Brian Helgeland from the nove...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Friends who grew up in working-class Boston, they drift apart after a terrible tragedy. ... more
Years later, brutal events reconnect them. Jimmy's 19 year-old daughter is coldly murdered. Dave is a suspect. And Sean, now a cop, scrambles to solve the crime bef...
Three childhood friends - Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn) Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins) and Sean ... more
Devine (Kevin Bacon) - are thrust together as adults when Jimmy's 19 year old daughter is murdered. Clint Eastwood's powerhouse drama secured Best Actor and Best Supp...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: An acting masterclass by the cream of the crop Disadvantages: Some ends left untied but this is also part of the fantastic unnerving feeling the film generates throughout.
audreyh 10.02.2005 (10.02.2005)
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Review of Mystic River (DVD)
![Mystic River [2003] [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78511368.jpg "Mystic River [2003] [DVD]")
Jan 9th, 2005
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