"Mystic River" by Clint Eastwood: a review

Mystic River is a famous American drama film which was released on October 15, 2003. The movie is well directed by Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood is also the co-producer of the movie along with Robert Lorenz and Judie Hoyt. Mystic is a multi star movie starring Sean Penn, Tim Bobbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Harden and Emmy Rossum. In the movie Sean Penn as Jimmy Markum is in the leading role. The story of the movie is written by Brain Helgeland based on a novel written by Dennis Lehane.

The film starts with the story of three boys Sean Devine, Dave Boyle and Jimmy Markum, playing hockey on the street. In the meanwhile Dave was taken away by the two child molesters dressed like police officer and after that parents of Sean and Jimmy started to look for him. Dave finally managed to escape from the house of molesters and ran through the forest.

The story then moved twenty-five year ahead when the boys are grown and still staying in Boston. Now Jimmy (Sean Penn) is an ex-con running a store and Dave (Tim Bobbins) is doing a blue-collar job. These two are still neighbors and are married. Jimmy has a 19 year daughter Katie (Emmy Rossum) who is in love with Brendan Harris. One night Katie was murdered in a bar where Dave was also there but unaware of Katie’s murder. That night Dave returned home with an injury and blood all over his clothes. Dave told his wife that he had a fight with a mugger and perhaps killed him. The third character of the story Sean (Kevin Bacon) is a detective and he is investigating the murder case of Katie. Dave was taken to a bar by Jimmy and his friends where he was asked about the murder of Katie. There Dave confessed that he had killed a child molester that night but not Katie. But no one believed Dave. Then in order to escape from there Dave told lie, and finally accepted that he had killed Katie. Within few seconds Dave was killed by Jimmy and the dead body was disposed in the Mystic River. After the investigation by Sean it was found that Katie was killed by Brendan’s brother and his friends. Finally Jimmy found himself guilty for killing Dave unnecessarily.

Due to its brilliant story and direction, Mystic River was nominated for six Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting actress and Best Supporting actor. Out of these Sean Penn got the Best Actor award while the Best Supporting Actor award went to Tim Robbins. The movie was also nominated for Golden Globe awards and BAFTA film award in different categories where it won many awards.

Mystic River was one of the greatest hits of 2003.