Mystic River

Genre: crime drama 

With: Sean Penn (Jimmy Markum), Kevin Bacon (Sean Devine), Tim Robbins (Dave Boyle), Lawrence Fishburne (Whitey Powers), Laura Linney (Annabeth Markum) and Marcia Gay Harden (Celeste Boyle)

Director: Clint Eastwood

Release: 2003

Studio: Warner Brothers Pictures

Rating: R

MBiS score: 8.5/10

I’d Rather Be Sorry Than Safe

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Story-line: in Buckingham Flats, a suburb of Boston, three men who were childhood buddies in the 70s reunite twenty years later when one of them loses his daughter to a murderer.    

Pluses: rock-solid screenwriting by Brian Helgeland (based on a novel by Dennis Lehane), fine direction and music by Clint Eastwood, great acting all around, an efficient escalation of tension and an ingenious meshing of two crucial events late in the narrative.

Minuses: none.

Comments: as it patiently spins its tale, the screenplay sheds light on a small, closed in world where friendship, love, mistrust and horror coexist. The murder premise leads to a complicated police investigation that will keep you guessing with every twist and turn. MYSTIC RIVER, a classic thriller that raises important moral questions, stands as a crowning glory for Clint Eastwood. Keep in mind this neighbourhood rule… some people don’t talk to the police.

MBiS

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