Mystic River is a very dark drama from 2003.  It is directed by Clint Eastwood and was nominated for six Academy Awards.   Sean Penn and Tim Robbins won best actor and best supporting actor respectively for their roles in the film.

The film begins with a child abduction by a priest and it doesn’t get any happier from there.  Our setting is the tough south side of Boston.  The groups of friends from the abduction scene are our main characters and they are getting to be middle aged.  Dave is the boy who was abducted and he has a child of his own, but there is something off about him, possibly something left over from his abduction.  Jimmy is the hardened criminal turn blue collar father with two kids and a hard cutthroat wife.  Sean is a detective and all these characters are reunited after Jimmy’s daughter is murdered and Sean begins an investigation.  Coincidentally, Dave arrived home covered in blood the same night of the murder.  The only person who knows of this is his wife.  He explains to her that somebody tried to mug him after he left the bar.  Her suspicions grow after there is nothing in the paper or the news.  She actually comes to the conclusion that he is the murderer and goes to tell Jimmy.  Jimmy gets him drunk and threatens Dave out by the river.  Dave is scared for his life and confesses to a murder he did not commit.  Jimmy murders him.

I really loved this movie.  The acting is really well done.  The characters are bitter and harsh from their frigid environment.  It is a simple life with simple rules.  Their misapplied concepts of justice produce a vicious cycle that consumes the neighborhood.  As Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

“Because it’s like I told the girls.  Their daddy is a king.  And a king knows what to do and does it.”

9/10