Mystic River

Released 2003
Stars Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Emmy Rossum, Tom Guiry
Directed by Clint Eastwood

'River' leads moviegoers on a suspense-filled, sometimes painful adventure marked by great performances. Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" is a dark, ominous brooding about a crime in the present that is emotionally linked to a crime in the past. It involves three boyhood friends in an Irish neighborhood of Boston, who were forever marked when one of them was captured by a child molester; as adults, their lives have settled into uneasy routines that are interrupted by the latest tragedy. Written by Brian Helgeland, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, the movie uses a group of gifted actors who are able to find true human emotion in a story that could have been a whodunit, but looks too deeply and evokes too much honest pain.

Summary by Roger Ebert

I really enjoyed this haunting movie until the final two scenes which completely broke the mood. It suddenly switched things around and made it look like Jimmy (Sean Penn) was a crime boss who had orchestrated the entire affair. He and his wife seemed to forget their grief and revel in their power. I wish it would have ended after Sean (Kevin Bacon) told Jimmy he had killed the wrong man. It was handled in a powerful manner, and it would have been the right ending. --Bill Alward, July 28, 2004