42/50x2: Mystic River

I may have stated this before, but I was never drawn to Clint Eastwood as an actor. Maybe it was because I just never enjoyed westerns (until recently), but I can barely recall many Eastwood films that I have seen.

Now, I have finally seen three Eastwood films - directed by at least. The first two starred Eastwood himself - in Gran Torino and Million Dollar Baby. I have been meaning to see Mystic River forever, and I was finally able to.

The film follows a trio of friends in Boston. We start with them as kids, playing hockey on the streets when one of them decides to have all of them write their names in some wet cement to not only 'be bad' but leave their legacy in the cement.

They are caught, however, by what appears to be a cop and one of the boys is told to get into the backseat - and he goes missing for four days.

Fast forward to today, the boys are no longer friends - mostly because of what happened so many years ago. Sean (Kevin Bacon), who was once the leader and rebel of the trio, has since become a cop; Jimmy (Sean Penn), who followed what Sean did as a kid is now a store owner, but also a former (and possibly current) criminal; Dave (Tim Robbins) was the poor kid who went with the police who turned out to be pedophiles.

Dave has a young child and wife, Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden), but has a lot of demons inside of him because of what happened to him. Jimmy has a wife, Annabeth (Laura Linney) and a handful of children, including his oldest, Katie (Emmy Rossum). Sean is also married, but his wife has run out on him and he has no idea where she is - he is also partners on the police department with Whitey (Laurence Fishburne).

The guys, who were once inseparable, are now nothing more than acquaintances. Sean is the one mos distant as Jimmy and Dave are now 'related' by marriage.

One night, Jimmy's daughter Katie goes out with some friends and doesn't come home. She also doesn't show up the next day for work - or to her sister's communion that afternoon.

Sean and Whitey are called to a crime scene where it is discovered that the car belongs to Katie, and they end up finding her body in the park a little away from the car.

The rest of the film is Sean and Whitey trying to figure out who murdered this poor girl, while Jimmy and his gang, the Savages, are searching for the killer in their own way. Dave, meanwhile, continues to spiral out and he soon because a suspect in the case - and Jimmy begins to believe that he did it.

This was by far the best of the three Eastwood directed films that I have seen, and that says a lot since I enjoyed the other two as well.

The acting in this film is superb. Robbins and Bacon were amazing, and though I don't always enjoy him, Penn was outstanding.

Grade: