1.5 Stars R, 137 m Starring Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins Directed by Clint Eastwood
The waterways around Boston are hardly mystic, let alone clean. The Standells wrote a '60s garage rock masterpiece, "Dirty Water," dedicated to the Charles River. However, maybe by taking the Dennis Lehane novel, "Mystic River" to the big screen, Clint Eastwood was out to make a statement. The characters in this dreadful excuse for a thriller are filthy, sad representations for what human beings are supposed to be. That said, "Mystic River" is a sort of amalgam of "Dirty Harry," "The Catcher in the Rye" and the "Boondock Saints."
Initially, the story starts out as a political condemnation of pedophilia-prone parishioners, a seemingly strong start for what soon becomes a drawn-out character study on the horrors of life after "death," from stereotyping in police offices to vigilante justice. Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins), finds himself in between a rock and a hard place at the ripe old age of nine or so, when he follows the foul-mouthed persuasion of a pederast to "get" the proverbial candy. Unbeknownst to him and his hoodlum friends, Jimmy (Sean Penn) and Sean (Kevin Bacon), Danny goes on a four-day journey to Hell and back.
Twenty-five years later we find that Jimmy went on to fulfill his dreams of a life of crime, only to come out a corner grocer with dirty hands and a beautiful, soon to be dead, daughter. Sean has grown up to be a member of the Boston Police Department and an estranged husband, while the socially-awkward, mentally-scarred Dave Boyle, who now has a son and a wife, lives a reclusive existence.
When Katie, Jimmy's daughter turns up dead, Eastwood comes on heavy with the Dirty Harry, leave-the-cops-outta-this-one persona as he sends Jimmy and the local Pinkerton Thugs, the Savage Brothers, out to beat the cops in their own game. What happens from here is a delusional drama of disarray and draconian thought in this tight-knit Boston neighborhood.
An attempt at social commentary is made through the character of Whitey Powers. Many movies portray cops to be racist white males at the top of the local power structure. Having a black actor play a cop named Whitey Powers is a tactless attempt at social commentary, which could have been played better.
The film deserves a golden raspberry award for worst movie of the year. There are about three endings in the last 30 minutes of the film, each one less endearing and more annoying as it flounders across the screen. Second, typecasting of actors is lame. Sean Penn plays the gritty guy, Kevin Bacon plays the cop-ladies man, can we say "Sleepers"? Apparently, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon does cross over to plots. And finally, why oh why does Tim Robbins always play the shady guy? He's one of the greatest contemporary actors around, yet in the past five years he's played the seediest of seedy characters. Finally, Penn's costume in "Mystic River" is like Robert De Niro times Al Pacino. With dyed black hair and some of the worst over-acting since "I Am Sam," Penn proves that he is great at acting like other actors, and further blemishes the promise he showed in the early '80s film "Bad Boys."
On the bright side, "Mystic River," is the first movie since "People Under the Stairs" to truly point out the power of mutes. Hurrah for that.
