Mystic River
This movie, a sort of neighborhood revenge fantasy, has been getting glowing notices. So I’m swimming against the tide yet again when I tell you it stank on ice.
There’s some good acting, if you can get past the “I want to thank the Academy” taint most of the emoting has, especially from a grimacing Sean Penn as the reformed-but-not-really father of a murdered teenage daughter.
But the dialogue is alternately tedious and laughable – some of the worst in years, especially in a “prestige production” like this one. Also, characters go wildly out of character for no reason, and its ultimate extreme amorality is jarring in a movie that asks you to care for a group of damaged boy-men (with Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins as the other points of the triangle).
To me, the fawning reviews for this movie are a classic case of being taken in by the markers a movie puts forth, without actually watching the movie. It’s directed by Clint Eastwood! It has Sean Penn! It’s about childhood trauma! It’s atmospheric! So it must be good. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for all the positive reviews for an overlong teeth-gnasher with about as much suspense as an episode of “Murder She Wrote.”
They say the book is much, much better. I heard him interviewed on NPR a few weeks ago, and he seemed very together and interesting. Of course, when is the book not better than the movie?
Thanks for saving me $8.00! The glowing reviews had finally piqued my interest, but I trust your judgment. I know exactly the “prestige picture” syndrome you describe–strong cast, high expectations, but an end result that just doesn’t live up to the praise. “The Hours” was disappointing in that respect, too–quite a blah film that never did dig deeply into its characters.
It’d odd how reading a blog (which I rarely do) can make you feel like you trust someone’s observations more than a reviewer in a national publication. I may still rent this flick when it comes out on DVD just to satisfy my curiosity, but I won’t make it a priority (as much as a movie can be a priority, anyway!).
I’m a fan of Dennis Lehane’s mystery novels featuring private investigator Patrick Kenzie, but I couldn’t work my way through “Mystic River.” Maybe it was because I was on vacation last summer when I first tried and what I really needed was more escapist fare, which is why I read detective fiction in the first place.
I thought it was quite good.