Well…I’m only a year behind. Just as Clint Eastwood is placing his latest directorial offering at the altar of the award-giving gods, I have just got round to watching Mystic River his 2003 film that swept the board in the acting categories at last years Oscars and quite rightly to. This is one of the best recent films I have seen. As Eastwood himself comments in the DVD special feature documentary, Mystic River is not about special effects or an action-packed plot – it’s about people, human interaction and tremendous acting.

This initial section is handled so well and sets the tenor of the whole film. The tension builds and builds and as Dave turns to look at the boys out of the back of the car as he is driven away, all know that something is very wrong. The abduction scenes are really sketchy with flashing images of Dave locked in a cellar and running away through woods. As this part of the story is not spelt out and is left for the viewer to piece together in their head, the tension, fear and general sense of being unsettled is with you right from the very start of the film.

When we are re-introduced into the lives of all three main characters they are initially presented with a veneer of happiness and success. Jimmy is running a small business and has a loving family around him, Sean seems to be a well-dressed highly successful detective and Dave has a supportive wife and a meaningful bond with his young son. This front soon falls away from all the men, and as the tension increases we see that the emotional turmoil within soon brings the truth to the surface. Jimmy is an angry and violent person, so overwhelmed with the loss of his daughter (the sole offspring from his deceased first wife) that he pledges to find and deal with the killer himself. Sean is having bizarre marital difficulties that he has no idea how to deal with, while professionally he is finding it really difficult to be hunting the killer of an old friend’s daughter. Dave is still hugely traumatised by his abduction as a boy. All the men are still haunted by the events of their childhood, Dave in a very real sense, while the other two reflect on what would have happened if they had got into the car instead of Dave. Sitting with Sean at the police station after having to identify his daughter’s body Jimmy even suggests that this has happened to him because it wasn’t him in the car that day – he had been saved once and this was his punishment.

Under Clint Eastwood’s fantastic direction this film and most importantly its actors are truly compelling. Their outstanding performances all seem to feed off each other and we learn so much about each character and their inner turmoil through their interactions with each other. I have always enjoyed Sean Penn as an actor and it seems totally right that he was awarded an Oscar for this role. His interaction with the other actors, particularly Robbins’ Dave and Marcia Gay Harden’s Celeste, are really intense, emotional and I must add utterly believable (I know some have criticised him for overacting but I feel that a raw performance fitted the role perfectly). Robbins and Harden are also amazing to watch on screen – gripping to watch the facades fall as their lives unravel before their eyes. Another intense performance is that of Laura Linney as Annabeth Markum, Jimmy’s second wife.