AT THE MOVIES WITH KASEY BUTCHER
How far would I go to protect those I love? How can one choice change my life? What events created my reality? Just how deep can a “guy’s” movie be? Mystic River starring Sean Penn (I Am Sam), Tim Robbins (The Truth About Charlie), Kevin Bacon (Hollow Man), Laura Linney (The Life of David Gale), and Marcia Gay Harden (Casa de Los Babys) sparked these questions and more.
Mystic River is the thrilling story of three friends Jimmy (Penn), Sean (Bacon), and Dave (Robbins). When the boys are eleven, Dave is forced into a stranger’s car and held captive for four days before he escapes. He is never quite right afterward and the friends are haunted by the question “what if I had gotten in the car instead?” for the rest of their lives. Jimmy grows up to be a crook gone straight for love of his daughter. Sean leaves the old neighborhood and becomes a Massachusetts State detective. Dave grows to be a functioning, but still “not quite right” man. The three friends, who have grown apart over the years, are brought back together when Jimmy’s 19 year-old daughter, Katie (Emmy Rossum, Nola), is killed. Sean is assigned to investigate the case. All evidence points to Katie’s boyfriend…or to Dave. Even Dave’s wife, Celeste (Harden) thinks he did it. Jimmy wants his daughter’s murderer found. He wants revenge and he wants the killer brought to justice-even if he has to beat the police to the job.
To review this movie in one word I’d have to say—-mind-blowing. Usually a movie that includes an entire cast of well-known and award-winning actors creates a toxic “clash of the titans” that can kill a movie (see John Q). The actors in this film, however, work beautifully together, bringing the story to life while getting under an audiences skin. Harden is incredible. Robbins is creepy. Penn is a perfect over-protective father with a snarl to compete with Sylvester Stalone. His performance is even as good as I Am Sam.
The imagery in this film, created by director Clint Eastwood and director of photography Tom Stern, creates a dreary combo of darkness and dirt that amplifies the unsettling tone of the story.
The story is the hard to find pairing of thrills and mystery (the kind of stuff the guys like) and deeper interpretive meaning (the stuff more evolved audiences like). I was convinced I knew who killed Katie from the start. All I was waiting for was the motive. Then, in an ironic, Shakespearean 180, all my conceptions turned out to be wrong. My jaw was left dropped and my mind was spinning- but in a good way. This is a film that made me think and it is certainly one of the best I’ve seen all year.
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