The film takes the next two hours to unravel the crime drama from all angles. The whole time it keeps dangling nuggets without directly saying who the culprit is, but it keeps nudging you into thinking it is one of two candidates. I love how this film is paced, and for being over two hours it never felt it overstayed its welcome because there is such a diverse cast where every character seems to have their moments. While Penn, Robbins and Bacon are the major players, even most of the supporting roles manage to get a scene or two to call their own. Boyle's wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden), has no idea what to make of her husband after the incident and does a tremendous job looking as perturbed and troubled as he is. Brendan Harris (Tom Guiry) is the now widowed boyfriend of the missing daughter, and just like Boyle, you never know what his true motives are until the very end cause he so brilliantly manages to stay in the shades of gray throughout the entire film.
I kept thinking throughout the movie when things finally come to a head, I will not see what is coming and sure enough I did not. Perhaps I am horrible for predicting twists, but I enjoyed how the final moments played out, and I can safely say Mystic River did not have an awful twist for the sake of just having a twist like in films such as Hancock. The twist here made total sense, and the way they explained it too should have had me guessing about it earlier.
If you like your crime dramas/thrillers then you will definitely enjoy Mystic River. Eastwood redeemed himself from the last film I blogged about in this collection, The Rookie. I do not see it up on Netflix instant streaming, but the disc is there for rental. If you want to follow along on the Clint Eastwood collection fun with me, here is a link to the box set I have off Amazon.
Past Eastwood Collection Blogs
The Rookie
Absolute Power
Dirty Harry
Kelly's Heroes
Where Eagles Dare
Gran Torino
