Really good, but the ending was so sad. I don't want to spoil it, but I hated what happend to Tim Robbin's character. Fine performances all around, especially Penn and Robbins. I actually though Linney was better than Harden, but both did great. Probably my 3rd or 4th favorite of 2003.

Clint Eastwood has been one of my favorite actors and directors for so many years now, so I figured that I would really like it, but I didn't know I would like it as much as I did, since he wasn't starring in it. He has directed some great movies through the years, such as The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, Unforgiven, Play Misty For Me (his first directing effort), The Bridges of Madison County, Heartbreak Ridge, A Perfect World, Sudden Impact, and on and on. Mystic River is his masterpiece! The movie was so well paced, and you could just feel the tension.

Eastwood always seems to get great performances from his cast, and Mystic River was no exception. In fact, I believe I witnessed the best collective performances that I've witnessed in a movie yet. Sean Penn was INCREDIBLE, and I don't know if anybody else felt like this, but I felt like I was watching Robert Deniro. He was THAT good, and I don't why he reminded me of him so much as Jimmy, but he did. Tim Robbins was also great, and the depth that he brought to Dave was perhaps his best performance ever. Kevin Bacon was probably my favorite character in the film, because he was basically the "security blanket" of the film. You really couldn't trust the other characters, because they weren't stable people, and even though Fishburne also added stability, he was a little shifty in the way he went about his job.

Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney have both worked with Eastwood in the past, and they both did fantastic. Harden was very convincing as Dave's nervous and confused wife, and Linney gave a new meaning to the term "stand by your man", and she showed what a heartless and selfish woman she really was. Her little speech turned me on for some reason. (she's got a nice rack too)

The story itself felt as though it was really happening before my eyes. Eastwood did a great job setting up the story with the kids, and you could tell how they were going to turn out when they got older, especially after Dave was abducted, and sexually abused. Sean (Bacon) seemed like a level headed kid, and Jimmy (Penn) was definitely the hard case of the three. Quite the little punk. As the story got into full swing, and Jimmy's daughter was killed, I felt these characters were so compelling. One couldn't help to feel sympathy for Dave (Robbins), because his experience really messed him up badly, but he was going on with life the best he could, and genuinely seemed to love his wife and son, as they seemed to love him. I felt sympathy for Jimmy as well, and the pain of losing his daughter really came through in Penn's performance.

As the story progressed, the tension built at a perfect pace, and when the 3rd act climaxs, it's POWERFUL! Definitely not the cliched ending that has become common place with Hollywood. It's how it really would have happened. Nobody came to Dave's rescue at the last second, and Jimmy acted quite understandably, considering the circumstances. The pity I felt for Dave's son, when Jimmy made good on his promise to Katie, really stayed with me, as did the sympathy I felt for Dave, who couldn't even trust himself anymore, and as he layed on the ground helpless, drunk and bleeding, it was ver emotional. In real life, innocent people are punished, and they don't always get vindication, and in Jimmy's case, as well as his wife Annabeth's, guilt took a back seat to protecting the family, and looking out for number one.

All in all, Mystic River gets a strong A+ from me, and it's one of the best dramatic movies that I've ever seen. It's got great rewatchability, but you can't turn off your brain, or you won't get as much out of it, and if you have A.D.D., you'll probably find your mind drifting, as there are no explosions. This movie should have won the best picture of 2003, because it was a superior film in every way to the movie that was selected.

always an agenda ... : )

The (second) best film of 2003. Brilliant all around. A.

Definately agree with you there. Far superior.

How many movies you see feature 4 excellent performances worthy of being the best in each category? Not many that I can think of.

Great acting by Penn, Robbins, Harden, Beacon. Wonderful direction and pacing of the movie by Eastwood. The best movie since Minority Report IMHO.

A+

Fantastic. Excellent performances by the all-star cast. Such a touching movie. The first time I watched it, I thought it was good but not great (mainly because I didnt pay too much attention; with friends, etc.). After the second time, I truly got to see the whole movie, and it blew me away. It was incredibly sad, but an excellent movie. On of the best of 2003.

My Grade: A

While I did like it very much, I didn't think the film was great. I may have to watch it again but with all the hype it just didn't live up to my expectations. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins.... While both are good, come on... I think there were better performances in the categories they won for at the Academy Awards. *Cough* Murray/Depp/Kingsley and Del Toro*Cough. It's still a good movie though, I'll watch it again.

- B/B+

Sean Penn deserved the Oscar for his performance in this.

And had Return of the King not kicked so much ass, this would have won best picture, I think. It was also in my top five of last year.

This year, Clint's back, with a film better than Mystic River.

It's such a beaautiful film, and so full of life. I really wasn't expecting it to be great, but it's now my favorite american made film this year, second favorite of the year following Vera Drake.

Just Network. :wink:

@Mav. I don't think Hayden was selfish at all. Hayden makes the film for me because of her lapse into doubt followed by its consequences. I think all the performances were strong, and this was a worthy top in 2003, but had she not bridged the gap between Penn and Robbins the movie would have been only three-quarters what it was. That she ended up doubting her own husband while trusting the instincts of a far more idstant old family friend really shows how plagued she was by fear and confusion, not selfishness. She stood by him for quite sometime, and his refusal to include her in his trauma because it had a personal history (when he was taken as a boy) just shows how experiences like these, if not treated with openness can really alientate people from their loved ones. I think that's why when Robbins got his Oscar he pleaded that anyone who has been in the situation should be unafraid to get help, and they shouldn't feel like it was their fault, etc.

I actually don't think Penn deserved the Oscar, both Murray and Depp were better in their roles, but that does not detract from Penn's performance at all. It was just an incredibly good year for lead male actors. I actually though Bacon and Hayden carried their parts the best. Probably because they were more ambiguous.

Linney comes out of nowhere in the end when she makes out with Penn. I've never seen her like that before. She did quite well in the few minutes she was given on screen.

Excellent movie.

If anyone's read the book, you'll notice how Penn played his character to the dot! Bacon actually did not play the character like he was intended to but he was still pretty good too.

Out of the 5 Best Picture nominees, I liked Mystic River the least. Not that it's a horrible movie mind you, just not my cup of tea. For some reason, other movies with similar plots interested me more than Mystic River.

I think its because the movie is more character driven than story driven ...

theres not a lot of development that ever takes place in terms of the central story ... more development in how different relationships are formed and how the characters evolved and stuff .. to be quite honest, the main story doesn't move forward till the character of bacon discovers who the real killers might be.

For me, I've seen most, if not all of Eastwood's films that he has directed. And they all have the same sort of leisure pacing, regardless of what the story is. And for Mystic River, the characters are what make the story. And yet, I didnt find them that interesting.

this is a movie where i give its makers the least amount of credit.

Whereas Bourne Identity was about 5 pages from the book and the rest an original screenplay (an insult to the writer), almost all the scenes, all the dialogues, all the movements, all the actions .. everything came straight out of the book ... i mean .. if you wanna talk about faithful adaptations... this is it .. you can't get any closer than this ... so is eastwood to blame? Screen writers ?? nah ... one would think they didn't even bother with a script with this one.

A litttttttle overrated.

Great film, but the ending left me with an odd sickening, nauseous feeling.

A-

I felt the same way about the ending, but for a different reason. It sort of felt like I was punched in the stomach.

It was a very grim, almost creepy ending, and it did not clear things up at all.

heh...I think you misread my ramblings. Linney was the selfish one. She wasn't concerned about her now fatherless cousin Michael, the fact that Dave, an innocent man , was killed, or that Celeste did a very brave thing by going to Jimmy and telling him that she thought her husband and the father of her only child had killed his daughter. Annabeth was only concerned about herself, Jimmy, and their two girls, and the power that they could have, regardless of what they had to do to remain strong as a family.

Harden perfectly played the nervous and good hearted Celeste, who had her life basically destroyed because of her own lack of faith in Dave, as well as her misunderstanding in what kind of man Jimmy was. She should have read one of the two of them better than she did, and because she didn't, it cost her a lot. Not only did she lose her husband and her son lose his dad, but she would have to live with that guilt for the rest of her life. Annabeth completely lost respect for Celeste, as there was a clear difference between strong and weak with both women in the movie, and Celeste's weakness was not even worth Annabeth's compassion.

hayden's performance in the movie was the best out of everyone IMO.

Mystic River - A

Blew me away. Clints best directorial performance. Sean Penn? wow.

It's a bit overrated. Some terrific performances here. B+

This really surprised me. I ended up loving it.

8/10 (B+)

A-


Mystic River tells the story of three childhood friends, Jimmy, Dave and Sean, one of whom was abducted and molested as a young boy which changed him and his life as well as their friendship forever. Many years later, Jimmy's eldest daughter is killed and Dave (Tim Robbins), who was molested as a boy and now lives in an unhappy marriage with Jimmy's cousine Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden), is the main suspect while Sean (Kevin Bacon) investigates the case.

Mystic River is a masterful effort by the master of filmmaking and acting, Clint Eastwood. The movie delves deep into the dark corners of our lives and fascinates us with its bitterness and harshness. The cast ensemble is one of the very best ever assembled. Each member of the cast delivers an excellent performance, save for Marcia Gay Harden whose character simply annoyed me way too much to be able to enjoy her performance, but maybe exactly that was the point. Kevin Bacon delivers an understated, but very crafty turn while Tim Robbins is without a doubt the highlight of the movie and gives his career-best performance. Sean Penn is very good, as always, but I felt that his Oscar win was undeserved as he tended to overact a lot in Mystic River. Laura Linney's appearance in the movie was rather short, but her final frosty monologue is very gripping and well-delivered.

The movie itself is a fine piece of a character study combined with a crime plot which becomes more and more irrelevant towards the end. The revelation is surprising, but at that point, we don't really care that much about it. It is a movie between Sean Penn and Tim Robbins and the way that a certain incident in our lives can affect the course of your future. That point was conveyed very well and the ending of the movie was one of the best in its year. One minor aspect that bothered me about the movie was the storyline of Kevin Bacon's wife that didn't really add anything to the character or the story and should have been left out. But it is a rather minor complaint about this otherwise great movie. Mystic River ranks as one of the best movies of 2003 and if it wasn't for Return of the King's (well-deserved) sweep, I could easily see Mystic River taking the Best Picture and the Best Director Oscars that year. Million Dollar Baby might be a more lauded, more awarded and more successful movie, but I feel that Mystic River will stand the test of time better than Million Dollar Baby as after multiplie viewings I still find it just as great as the first time.

5.4/10

I guess I'm the voice of dissent here. I know of a certain other poster here who isn't a fan, but I'll keep his identity secret for now. Clint's steady directorial hand is present and welcome, but the movie doesn't work. The entire plot hinges on a series of utterly ridiculous coincidences and misunderstandings, climaxing in a finale that's frustrating and overblown.

Plus, the movie couldn't have had less resonance for me if it was about Martians trying to buy a DVD of The Longest Yard.

I thought the performances by Penn and Robbins (The 'vampire' speech had me laughing like a madman) were wildly overrated, but Marcia Gay Harden's understated work was quite effective (I was happy when the Oscars acknowledged her).