Essentials: Mystic River

Year: 2003
Genre: Crime Drama
Directed: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Kevin Chapman, Tom Guiry, Emmy Rossum, Spencer Treat Clark, Andrew Macklin
Production: Warner Bros.

On the long list of actors turned director, Clint Eastwood certainly ranks among the top. His name is often uttered in the same breath as John Cassavetes and Laurence Olivier though for what it's worth Eastwood's personal brand of pulpy anti-hero bravado gives him a certain edge among a certain crowd of movie-goers. At his best as a director, Clint Eastwood's eye for worts-and-all Americana, sense of wistful dream-diverted story-lines and serious appreciation for great acting make him a singular standout among Hollywood. Even when he's resting on his laurels with mediocre crime dramas and phoned-in music appreciation flicks his humanism always shines through. While some may cling to Best Picture winner Million Dollar Baby (2004) or the biographical (not to mention controversial) American Sniper (2014) as the best Eastwood's ever done, allow me to kindly veer the heads of the undecided masses to take a look at Mystic River.

I think he's going to be okay...

The film starts with three boys playing hockey on the streets of Boston circa 1975. A man in uniform approaches and coaxes one of them into an unmarked car with a priest sitting uncomfortably in the passenger's seat; they drive off. A few days later the boy escapes the clutches of the two men though not before suffering sexual abuse in a damp, windowless basement. We then fast-forward to the present. The boys have grown to become Detective Sean Devine (Bacon), working-class stiff Dave Boyle (Robbins) and Jimmy Markum (Penn) an ex-convict who runs a neighborhood convenience store. Despite not talking to one another for years, the three are thrust into a crime-drama involving the murder of Jimmy's beloved teenage daughter (Rossum).

The screenplay written by Brian Helgeland and based on a novel by Dennis Lehane is a marvel all its own. The plot twists and turns to the common treads of a typical crime story only with a dignified appreciation for character. Thus while a lesser screenplay may contort to fit a larger need or theme, Mystic River ebbs and flows allowing dramatic moments to truly resonate with the audience. Sure it's a mystery but it's a perfectly assembled chamber piece first and a mosaic of a city second.

That mosaic of course can't be fleshed out without the pitch-perfect acting of everyone involved. Sean Penn is superb as Jimmy, a neighborhood king of sorts who's worldview is shrouded in gray. His vengeance and wrath inform many of the film's largest moments coating a father's desperation with an ambiguous authoritarian edge. There as his fulcrum is Laura Linney as wife Annabeth whose grief hides a mind much like Jimmy's. The couple's foils are Dave and Celeste Boyle (Gay Harden) who likewise give in award-worthy performances. Dave's past as the victim of sexual abuse smothers all possible relationships marking him an outsider in a neighborhood he's never left. His only solace, Celeste carries herself as if she were always wearing a rain-soaked pea-coat. She tries her hardest to open him up emotionally yet years of marriage have yielded a devastating emotional and physical toll.

Just look at how subtle her acting is!

Even Emily Rossum the little-seen victim is given time to shine as a petulant daughter who craves not so much approval from her father but respect for her choices. She along with Laurence Fishburne round out the named cast though let us not forget the background, no-name characters of Mystic River who sell the movie without even trying. The bleak workmens' affectations of East Boston's bars, storefronts and hobbles are supplied with pockmarked realism best typified by anonymous character actors such as Kevin Chapman and Jenny O'Hara. The subtle ensemble of players in Mystic River add a certain texture that rivals the en masse of a George V. Higgins novel.

I realize I've talked a lot about the acting but it's just that kind of movie and Clint Eastwood is just that kind of director. He doesn't just present characters as empty vessels we can pin our hopes to, he reaches deep into a character's very soul and puts their motivations on the table without pretense or concern for whether an audience will "go there" with them. Even his less celebrated films have this in common thus guaranteeing that the fault lies squarely on technical missteps. Mystic River however is likewise an excellent exercise in film technique expertly pulling back when it should and emphasizing when it should. We partially have cinematographer Tom Stern to thank for that, though let's not undersell Eastwood. He has been a Hollywood icon for nearly sixty years after all.

Mystic River is a near-perfect Hollywood drama that employs all the best aspects of modern filmmaking. It's perilously entertaining, uncompromisingly bleak and a splendid mix of old-fashioned tragedy, smart mystery and subtle character study. Is it any wonder that the film was nominated for five Oscars, winning two for actors Sean Penn and Tim Robbins?

Final Grade: A