Mystic River (guest)

MOVIE:  Mystic River

GUEST:  J Cole

NUTSHELL:  Three childhood friends come together in later life when the daughter of Sean Penn is kidnapped and murdered. The friends had last been together when the Tim Robbins character was kidnapped and raped by two men and then luckily escaped.

GOOD THINGS:  Where to begin? Penn, Robbins, and Kevin Bacon. I suppose Penn has had better roles but not Robbins or Bacon and they all are brilliant. The setting is working class Boston and you get a real sense of how enclosed such a neighborhood can be. The effect is of a stage and the world outside of it ceases to exist. You soon come to understand how things work in this world and then you are free to speculate as to who the killer is. It is impossible not to become absorbed in the life of the movie.

BAD THINGS:  Really hard to say. I suppose I could invent a criticism if I really tried but I feel no need to do so.

FEATURES:  Eastwood directed and it’s amazing how the associations we have with him regarding violence finds its true face in this movie.

UNCOMFORTABLE MOMENTS:  There is a confrontation between Penn and Robbins that is so absorbing that you feel trapped in the movie house and powerless to affect what you know is coming. If feeling emotion is uncomfortable, this is uncomfortable.

NOTABLE:  Even the minor characters fit perfectly, especially the wife of the Robbins character. She is put in an impossible postion and does what she thinks is right and pays dearly for doing just that.

BEST PART:  At the end of the movie when you have sort of gathered yourself, there is a scene with Bacon and Penn that assures you that nothing has been resolved. The evil that originally drove the events is still exerting its influence even after what could be called a resoltion. They are all trapped by the past and have no other recourse put to continue to play their roles.

BEST LINE:  If you tell me the truth I won’t kill you.

CROWNS:  4 out of 5