Mystic River (2003)

excellent murder mystery directed by Clint Eastwood

Director: Clint Eastwood

 

This superb murder mystery won two Academy Awards: Sean Penn for Best Actor; Tim Robbins for Best Supporting Actors.

 

At the beginning, three friends (Jimmy Markum, Sean Devine, and Dave Boyle are playing street hockey in Boston in 1975. After losing the ball down a storm drain, the boys decide to sign their  names in the wet cement of the sidewalk. Two men pull up in a car, and begin to threaten the boys for defacing municipal property. Then Dave is taken away by the two men, and as we later find out, was abducted for four days by the two pedophiles.

 

Twenty-five years later, Sean (Kevin Bacon) works for the State Police. Jimmy (Sean Penn) s an ex-con who runs a neighborhood market. Dave (Tim Robbins) is a blue-collar worker who is still haunted by his abduction. Sean is called in, along with Sergeant Powers (Laurence Fishburne) to investigate a crime scene. The body of Katie Markham (Emmy Rossum) is found. Jimmy and two “buddies” are conducting their own investigation. Dave is a suspect, but Sean doesn’t think so. Powers does. A young boy, Brendan, whom Jimmy doesn’t like was planning on eloping with Katie in Las Vegas.  The wives of Jimmy and Dave were both friends of Katie and they are frightened. Celeste Boyle (Marcia Gay Harden) is especially bothered because Dave came home the same night of Katie’s disappearance with blood on his hands. His story that he tells police does not match the story he told his wife.  Sean’s wife, from whom he is separated, keeps calling his cell phone and not talking.  Gradually, the plot unfolds with characters barking up the wrong tree until the identity of the killer is revealed at the end. 

 

It is an experience that goes back to old-fashioned movie making. The director, Eastwood, tends to want to create a relaxed atmosphere on the set. The crew consists of people he has worked with for many years, so they almost instinctively know what he wants to do. The film has a very unusual look because it appears  to be natural light.  It is tough to see where the lights are placed. The look  of the actors’ faces is almost magical, due to the lighting.

 

Clint Eastwood was also the composer of the music, and it is very simple, sometimes just a piano.  The screenplay was written by one of the modern masters, Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential; Payback).