Sean Penn (r.) and Kevin Bacon in
Mystic River
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Mystic
River
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laura Linney, Marcia
Gay Harden, and Laurence Fishburne
A film review by Taryn A. Harris
Mystic River is a film based on a novel
by Dennis Lehane. Clint Eastwood directs an ensemble cast in
this haunting, somber drama about three childhood friends played
by Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins and the two crimes
that bind them.
The locale is Boston in the 1970s. Jimmy,
Sean and Dave are eleven year-old boys playing street hockey.
They decide to write their names in wet cement and before Dave
finishes his name, two men pretending to be cops stop them and
take Dave away in their car. After several days of sexual assault,
Dave escapes.
Flash forward to the present and the childhood
friends have gone their separate ways. Jimmy (Sean Penn) is an
ex-convict, Sean (Kevin Bacon) is a homicide detective and Dave
(Tim Robbins) is a lost soul with a skittish wife (Marcia Gay
Harden) and a young son.
The murder of Jimmy's teenage daughter
reunites the trio. Sean and his partner Whitey (Laurence Fishburne)
investigate the murder, and Dave quickly becomes the number one
suspect.
Mystic River is a story about community,
family, crime and punishment.
Clint Eastwood is an actor's director. He sets up the shots and
creates an atmosphere and then hangs back to allow the actors
to do what they do best.
Sean Penn delivers an Oscar-worthy performance
as the tortured Jimmy living on both sides of the law. With Laura
Linney as Jimmy's intense, but stoic wife.
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