"Mystic River" is an obscure thought that attempts to establish a certain emotional connection between the present and the past. The incident involved three teenagers living in the Irish area of Boston. One of them was violated and their lives were changed. As adults, their lives were not easy, and they were recently involved in a new tragedy. The film uses a group of talented actors, which allows the director to dig out the truest aspect of human emotions in a suspenseful murder story. But it was too deep and caused a lot of real pain.
The film is centered on three friends: Jimmy (Sean Penn) used to be a scammer and now runs a shop on the corner of the street; Dave (Tim Robbins) is a handyman; and Sean ( Kevin Bacon) became a police detective. All three are married; Jimmy's second wife Annabel (Laura Linni) helps him raise his eldest daughter and his two daughters. Dave and Celeste have a son. Sean's wife is pregnant, but she never shows up and never speaks on the phone occasionally. The other main character is Bowers (Lawrence Fishburne), partnered with Sean.
Jimmy dotes on his 19-year-old daughter Katie (Amy Rosen), and she usually helps in the shop. She fell in love with Brandon (Thomas Gerry), a boy who was not recognized by Jimmy. They were in a passionate love period and planned to leave together, but before they could act, Katie was brutally killed. Sean and Bowers are responsible for investigating the case. Brandon is obviously very suspicious, as is Dave, who came home late on the day of the crime, covered in blood, and confessed to his wife with great pain that he might have killed a pedophile.
Although the plot of "Mystic River" basically follows the general police procedures, the film reflects more than simple crimes. What it wants to express is the suffering that has been worsening throughout the decades, the unspeakable secrets and self-evident suspicions. Likewise, it is also about the intimate loyalty between husband and wife. Jimmy vowed to kill the murderer, and we have no doubt, especially when he hired a nearby mob to help with the investigation.
Linni's reaction to her husband's strong vengeance as a wife reminded me of Mrs. Macbeth. (Annotation: "Mrs. Macbeth is a cruel and unforgiving woman, but behind her coldness, she always reveals the gentleness, kindness, fragility and extremely loyal love of women to her husband. Her nature is kind, for her husband’s ambitions. In order to be the spiritual pillar of the husband, I had to arm myself with cruelty and coldness, say something against my nature, and do something against my nature.”) In contrast, Dave’s wife gradually began to doubt her husband’s story. , And spoke out these doubts. We can find that one wife is unconditionally loyal to her husband, while the other suspects that she has been rejected by her husband.
The story seems to give the answer, but it is not the answer. It is about a journey, and it also provides a scene for each actor to reach the limits of himself. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins both developed a sense of tension and suffocation when they were questioned by the police. A tension has also been created between Boris and Sean. The former tends to be guilty of Dave, while the latter is unwilling to doubt the childhood playmate. The funeral was full of hatred and blood, but everyone suppressed their anger.
That day always resides in their memory. The three boys were engraving their names on the wet concrete floor. Suddenly two people came out of the car. After showing the police badge, they took one of them away. The flashback footage showed that the boy who was taken away was abused for several days. The uncomfortableness of the other two boys exacerbated his pain. Perhaps they could not fully understand his experience at that time, but in a sense, they could no longer find the old feelings from this violated friend— —His name is only halfway inscribed, still in the concrete, just like his life, always stuck behind the car that is going away.
This is the 24th film by Clint Eastwood as a director, and it is also one of the few works he does not direct. In this film, he gave the actors great freedom to unearth the truth of certain moments and fully demonstrated the profound and harmonious relationship between the characters and the actors. As an inherently quiet and low-key actor, Eastwood tried to show the secret and reserved side of the three actors. For example, Robbins is immersed in his own pain all day, watching a vampire movie becomes a metaphor that reflects his inner feelings. Bacon is always in pain because of his wife's absence. Sean Penn seems to be a violent person at all times, but he has never acted violently.
It is exciting to watch such a powerful performance. In such an era where everyone is pursuing fast-paced, the existence of "Mystic River" is becoming more and more obvious, because what is really important is that the movie needs to watch, listen, and focus on empathy. A good director should learn to do subtraction instead of addition. Eastwood did not deliberately show anything, everything is for better presentation.
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