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
QuickView
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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