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A website I visited while randomly typing "What movie should I watch?" in my search engine listed this movie as a classic. I had never heard of it, but it is very well rated on IMDb (almost 8*), and directed by Clint Eastwood. I'm not the biggest fan of his work, especially the very american message his movies usually carry, but they are always very well made.
I'll try to lay out the story without giving too many spoilers. Yet, I'll assume that if you are reading this you don't want to read nothing about the story or the movie. So, the movie starts with three kids (boys) are playing together, one of them gets abducted and raped for 4 days. This part is a short intro, the movie is actually about them but something like 30 years later when they're all adults. A crime happens in one of their family, and that's the heart of the movie, one being a cop, another one more or less became a criminal.
So, there are a lot of good things in the movie. First the acting is great, as expected. Then the image is beautiful, the ambiance is immersive and it's overall a pleasure to watch. Characters are well written and through their stories, it talks about a lot of interesting subjects: trauma effect on people and their life, friendship over time, trust in marriage, local communities interactions, etc. The movie doesn't really focus on the police work or investigation, it's more the narrative arc to highlight characters interactions.
Their are still a few flaws though. First I didn't really like how it is cut. There are _a lot_ of cut back and forth between multiple characters which makes it difficult to follow, while it doesn't really add anything. It is a long slow movie, which is okay most of the time, but after 2h I was really hoping for it to finish.
Then the story. I know that it is based on a novel - which I didn't read - and it apparently follows is pretty well. But there are a few things that do not work at all in the movie, and that's the director job.
First, Sean's wife calls. It doesn't make any sense. What happened? Why is she calling him and doesn't speak at all? From a public phone in the middle of street? Why is she suddenly talking at the end of the movie? Why does he react like "oh cool she said something, everything is fine, she's now coming home"? All of these scene could have been edited out of the movie and it wouldn't have make the slighest difference.
Then, the murder resolution. I know it's not really the goal of the movie but still, not seing anything at all and just having Sean say to Jimmy, "oh yeah it was those two kids after all, they don't know why they killed your daughter" doesn't work. Accidental gun shot, alright, but they shot her twice and then beat her? I didn't really get the call recording either.
And finally the end. Jimmy is basically confessing to Sean that he killed Dave. And nothing from him?
Jimmy's wife goes all Targaryen with him, calling him a king who can run the city, all of the sudden, WTF?!
The parade? I don't get this scene at all.
In the end and despite its flaws, it is a great movie to watch, and I would recommend it if you are into that genre. I just feel slightly frustrated, because in my opinion it could have been a true masterpiece with a few different things.
Name Mystic River Release 2003 Type Movie Country USA Director Clint Eastwood Main Actors Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon --- Opinion Great, but not flawless Mood Dark, slow, beautiful