Slow. Built to a finale but a terrible ending. Bacon suddenly stopped being a cop for no reason and allowed Penn's character who is at least a murder suspect to walk away drinking whiskey. This is moments after some forced sentimental talk about the past to try and neaten up the story. Again. The ending was that the bad guys win ending. The bad guys being local bully mobster Penn with his two annoying cock sucker friends. Obviously true to life in that evil prevails but it didn't work for me in this movie by its own logic failures. Was it true to Penn's character, a man so proud with truth and paying for his crimes, how he never even confessed? Again, Bacon stopped caring about being a cop about the man he was just protecting?. Why didn't Robbin's just tell the truth instead being an obvious suspect? Instead of confessing he asks for a Sprite. That'll make you seem innocent yeah. Why could a boy that didn't talk secretly talk or was hinted to being able to? How did the cops just happen to show up in time? Was Penn's wife so sick that she really called him a king for being a murderer? Yes. Did Robbin's wife more or less get Robbins killed by presuming he murdered her to Penn thus leaving her child fatherless? Yes. Did Penn just kill a guy based on his own forced confession with no asking for evidence and then he's actually suprised when he got the wrong guy? Yes. And what was Kevin Bacon's wife's about, especially when we had over two hours to explain her? But it's OK... because Bacon makes a gun sign at the end to Penn and that has to mean something.
It's like the ending was a different movie which also revealed split personalities and a terrible movie.
What about the portrayal of Dave by Robbins. Acted well but a cliché abuse victim or what?
Talk about a movie with bad morals and holes

***Evils of the past and the problems with vigilante justice***

Released in 2003 and directed by Clint Eastwood, “Mystic River” tells the story of three men from a working class neighborhood in Boston. While playing in the street as kids, one of them is abducted and sexually abused for days. As adults they’ve drifted apart. Jimmy (Sean Penn) is a reformed con who runs a successful market when his daughter is suddenly murdered (Emmy Rossum). Sean (Kevin Bacon) investigates the murder with his partner, Whitey (Laurence Fishburne), with evidence eventually pointing toward Dave (Timothy Bottoms), the one who was abducted. Marcia Gay Harden plays Dave’s anxious spouse while Laura Linney plays Jimmy’s loyal wife.

This is similar in tone & theme to the melancholy “Sleepers” (1996), but less episodic and more dramatically gripping. The movie has the confidence to take its time and flesh-out the characters. It’s a psychological crime drama that works as both a whodunit and a tragedy. The intrinsic problems of vigilante justice are cogently illustrated.

Some people have misinterpreted the movie because they missed some things. For instance, they criticize the curious Lady Macbeth-like monologue of Annabeth (Linney) at the end. But watch the movie again, pay close attention, and the answers are there. I’d say more, but I don’t want to give anything away (you’re welcome to write me if you’d like some insights).

“Mystic River” is not something that can be casually watched; it’s a deep drama with three-dimensional characters, potently exploring several intriguing issues: How abuses of the past affect the present; the danger of hiding recesses of your psyche; the folly of not getting spiritual help for deep-rooted psychological concerns; disloyalty/loyalty; doing the wrong thing for the right reasons; jumping to wrong conclusions based on dubious info; houses divided cannot stand; the importance of encouraging one’s spouse for the sake of familial health & survival; “king of the castle”; etc.

The film runs 2 hours, 18 minutes and was shot in Boston.

GRADE: A

What a briliant movie. Story and acting both superb. I will focus on the ending since I realise many people dislike the end,and it is true its not a happy ending movie and no sort of justice is served...exactly as it happens in many occassions in real life. Although Daves tragedy is recognised by his old friends, as it would by anybody, the reality remains that they don't value him as an equal. They can not relate with him therefore the tragedy of his death does not have huge impact on them. As it was mentioned many times in the movie, including Dave himself, he was considered dead to many since he stepped into that car. His real death just came as a belated conclusion to everyone in the community. Looking closer at Jimmy and his wife, and the last speach she gives about Jimmy being the king, is just a verbalised example of how deflated ego combined with self-righteousness can justify the most horrible of actions. I thought this attitude was realistic by the particular characters and one can only argue about the way it was explained to us. The movie ending may not satisfy the "political correctness" sensitive crowd, but personally I was not offended by the fact that justice was not served. This movie is a story, is not trying to delive a message of what is right and wrong, but how the characters react to their circumstances and boy it did a briliant job. . Injustice happens more often in life than justice, sometimes for little and sometimes for really important matters. People should be offended by the real life injustice more and less with the ones that appear in fictional pieces of art.

Mystic River continuously outflows its poignant crime investigation through a meticulously gritty screenplay. The past haunts us. Experiences and encounters, grossly susceptible and an impressionably young age, returning viciously with psychological detriments. A naive boy that just didn’t know any better. Abducted. An unresolved mystery that manifested itself into an intricately societal Massachusetts neighbourhood, where one disturbance can erupt into a multitude of hatred from the cold concrete beneath them.

A father’s daughter mercilessly murdered in the streets that he, and his two ex-friends, played hockey in. Anguish. Guilt. Vengeance. His childhood pals, one assigned the task of searching for the killer and the other forced into battling his own justifications for not murdering her, sending their condolences to the grieving father. Yet, Mystic River refuses to tell a simple crime drama. Eastwood, with his insatiably concise attention to the screenplay, elevated the mystery by providing an illustration of emotive complexity. One that many inflict upon themselves. Torment. These three individuals, with one visibly undergoing traumatic bewilderment, exhume indications of self-torment.

Mystic River does not flow water. The elaborate dialogue is too viscous for the aqueous substance. Rather, it flows blood. Bacon’s detective role combating his duties as a justice seeker, that with the liabilities of adolescent friendship. Determining the fate of neighbours within his hands. Robbins’ psychologically damaged husband role, fabricating stories to protect his moral high ground. And Penn’s award-winning performance as the father, embroiled in a plethora of intense emotions that express the full journey of bereavement. As separate souls, these three give life to Helgeland’s script that, whilst frequently becomes overwrought with unnecessary conversations that repeat earlier information, undeniably captivates with its foundational strength in investigation building.

Eastwood takes a differing approach. Instead of the classic yet saturated “who dunnit!?” narrative structure, he settled for displaying the mechanisms of detective fieldwork. Composing a timeline but questioning witnesses and suspects. Revisiting evidence to accurately imagine the murder as it happened. See, Mystic River works not for its “twists” and “turns” so to speak, but for its richly developed characters and constant focus on the investigation itself. The sensational performances, acute direction and gritty aesthetics provide the script with leverage. It exposes the rawness of the situation beautifully. Not to mention the exquisite pacing that made two and half hours flow by quicker than a hockey stick crashing down a raging waterfall.

The conclusion should’ve been tighter, with Eastwood diminishing much of the staying power by unnecessarily extending its resolution. By simply ending on Jimmy and Sean coming to terms with what’s just happened, it enables the shock of its ending to simmer much more violently than Linney exclaiming how everyone else is weak compared to her and her husband.

So whilst not perfect, Eastwood adapts Lehane’s novel with a sense of emotional urgency. Once the grit settles in, it never lets up, taking you on a roaring ride down a river of torment.