Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Mystic River

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-17-2003, 02:47 AM:

Awesome. Great story, fantastic actors, excellent photography.

Posted by Paul Salley (Member # 740) on 10-17-2003, 03:38 AM:

Sean Penn does a outstanding job. The film is very entertaining and keeps you guessing. This is one to watch!

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-17-2003, 04:06 AM:

Either I've seen too many movies, or this movie was predictable and just overall boring and lame. I did not find any of the performances outstanding, just decent. I can't quite place my finger on this one, but there is just something not right with the production here.

Normally I love Clint Eastwood movies, but sorry to say this one was a big pile of [bs]

We are talking about "Mystic River" and not "Mystic Pizza", right?

(Note to self - if ever shooting a movie with a black man, refrain from giving him the name "Whitie". The audience is bound to be horribly distracted and the mood of the story destroyed every time the name comes up.)

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-17-2003, 04:49 AM:

Does Sean Penn play a man with a haunted past? If so, then it's Oscar time! It's always easy to predict who will be nominated.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-17-2003, 02:40 PM:

Yes Joe, he does.
I was just in Buffalo and while for a local it is probably very different from Boston (where the movie takes place), to me it looked a lot similar (the houses, the landscape) and I found the cinematography captured the autumnal mood amazingly well. It almost felt like you were sitting with the people on the porch in the cold weather.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-17-2003, 02:41 PM:

Oops!

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 10-19-2003, 08:40 PM:

10/19/2003, 11:55AM, Regal Cinema World 8, Eugene, house #4, SR-D. Attendance around 75. Flawless print except for CRAP code in reel 2. This looked *amazingly* good on the screen. Very sharp, loaded with fine detail, steady, and bright. And thankfully the sound was loud enough to make this largely dialog-driven film intelligible.

Best "serious" film of the year for me. Sean Penn is a no-brainer for Best Actor nom, probably Tim Robbins too. This film will get a boatload of Oscar nominations.

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 10-19-2003, 09:07 PM:

I'm with brad on this one. It could be that my expectations were exceedingly low, what with my noncompliant attitude towards the insane rantings of Tim Robbins and Sean Penn here in the real world. It could be that with as vocal as they have been lately on very serious subjects, and that I disagreed with them, it made it very hard for me to take them seriously as actors.

Watching this movie all I could do was try to pretend that they weren't sean penn and tim robbins.

As for the film, yeah it was standard eastwood styling, and sometimes I can really go for that. But this film was really just flat for me.

Mystic Pizza would take this film to the cleaners anyday.

Dave

Posted by Mitchell Cope (Member # 32) on 10-26-2003, 07:00 PM:

I was disappointed with this film. I thought it moved too slow and deliberate. And when the climax finally came, I thought the film was going to make a great finish. But it didn't for me. The ending didn't bring the closure I was halfway expecting. Nice try, but no cigar from me.

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 10-26-2003, 10:56 PM:

SPOILERS GALORE. Is there a way to hide the spoilers under some text?
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

OK, I loved the movie until the last 15 minutes. What a freaking letdown.

I didn't mind the actual fate of one of the main characters towards the end. What I hated was how the last 10 min was handled. Laurence Fishburne just disappears from the case and let's things go the way they are at the end? This is the same guy who wouldnt let up when Kevin Bacon was trying to take it easy on Tim Robbins early in the movie. And what about Bacon? He wasn't willing to give an old friend a break early in the movie when Fishburne tries to mention conflict of interest, but he is willing to let things slide despite Laura Linney looking all arrogant at the end? And the convergence of so many improbable events in a movie that is about serious real emotions just seemed a bit contrived. I mean I can live with one or two of these improbably events happening. But so many? It just came off as stupid. I mean what are the chances of one ex enemy's son getting involved in a crime and that too "accidentally" the same time as Tim Robbin's incident late at night when it is already established that the accidental killing was preceded by the kid actually hating the girl he accidentally killed. And what are the chances of the cops finding this out just as one character was being meted out vigilante justice. Then you had the psycho Bacon wife coming back and giving the Bacon character a sorta happy ending right out of the blue just because Bacon says he is sorry? Who is the bigger psycho here - Bacon's wife or any of the other characters in the movie? I hated the Bacon wife scenes as there was no real payoff for me.

How the hell doesn't the girl's boyfriend not even know of the girl at least missing until the cops come questioning him about a death he had no clue about. And what is this thing about the mute brother? If he could clearly speak, why humor him all these years and act like he couldnt speak? And the big scene was how the brother wanted her dead, but then in an amazing coincidence, they end up killing her accidentally? And why would the brother's friend want to threaten her anyway? Besides it looks like the mute brother has a good buddy in that idiot , so that breaks the theory of the whole overdependence on the brother emotionally.

What about Robbins character hiding the real incident? I can understand that he may be reluctant to divulge to his wife to suppress old memories. But then, to toy with the cops , why? Couldn't he just have taken them to the body at that point? I mean, I can understand that he was too drunk to think of showing the body to Sean Penn right before his final scene.

And the way they stretched out the ending just made the letdown even worse. If they ended the movie at the Penn -Bacon meeting on the street before the parade scenes, i wouldnt have been as frustrated with it. But then you think they will end the movie with Sean Penn telling his wife that he is tormented. OK. fine. But nooo. we gotta see Linney act like a total bitch. Fine. It is illustrating that she is a selfish lady who is not concerned with Marcia Gay Harden who sacrificed her family for theirs. Fine. Do they stop it with her speech? Nooo. Then they have to show a silly romp in the bed that just seems awkwardly filmed. Do they stop it there? Nooooo. Then they go to a parade and show Harden's character shut out of society because some people don't want to disturb their comfort zone even if it means being cruel to a friend of theirs. OK, I guess I can live with this ending so far even if I am mad as hell at this point. Do they stop it there?? Noooo. We gotta see Bacon's wife come back because of that stupid final call. Not only that, she is one bland looking bitch and then they show Bacon lightheartedly threatening Sean Penn who gives him a smirk. OK. NOT FINE ANYMORE. I just hated the way they showed Bacon all complacent about this at the end. Why not just put all the characters in torment at the end? At least show Bacon struggling with what happened. For me to not hate the ending, I didn't even have to have Sean Penn arrested. At least , don't let Bacon's character have the same ending with the wife and playful shooting threat.

END OF SPOILERS

Will you want to see it? If you want to watch a gripping movie, yes. But the ending will have you enraged because the payoff is just unsatisfying on so many levels.

[ 10-27-2003, 12:54 AM: Message edited by: Pravin Ratnam ]

Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 12-02-2003, 01:27 PM:

Pravin, you hit the nail on the head. Sure, some of the acting was powerful, but what a manipulative, contrived, morally bizarre story. Admittedly I only watched it in bits and pieces, but that was enough. It's as if the screenwriter(s) said, "Hmm, wouldn't it be so tragic and ironic if a screwed-up guy gets killed by his equally screwed-up former childhood friend?" and proceeded to slap together a plot which would fit that scenario.

Posted by Stephen Isaacs (Member # 1674) on 12-02-2003, 02:59 PM:

Excellent film, well worth seeing

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 12-15-2003, 08:44 PM:

Mystic River for me is the best film of the year so far. They should start scribing Sean Penn's name on the Oscar now to save time later.

At the end of it...it's like your reaction after eating a great meal at a restaurant. Ahhhhh...that was fantastic.

One minor bitch about it though (and it feels like a cheap shot considering the incredible achievement surrounding it) is why oh why did they have to tie up the Kevin Bacon personal drama so snugly? It would have been more effective just leaving it hanging...or better yet, her telling him the daughter's name and then hanging up again. Leaves two ways his life could move on...either he now knows the name of his daughter and moves on as that's all he's ever going to get, or he sees if she can say that there still may be hope for more. But not to 'instantly' have her in Boston by his side on the same day...shame, but like I said, I forgive it as the rest of the film is so fantastic.

If you've not seen it yet, do it.

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 01-23-2004, 02:40 AM:

I liked this movie even though it stank of Bloodwork. As was said before it is typical Eastwood material. I thought it did a good job of masking everyone's "haunted past." I was trying to figure out if Jimmy was a mob boss from the beginning. I would also have to agree that the ending really sucked. It should have ended with Sean Penn's character dying in some way, either suicide or by David's wife killing him.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 01-23-2004, 09:25 PM:

I attended a screening of this movie recently at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Afterwards, Clint came in and talked about this and other movies of his and answered questions. It was a very interesting evening.

Posted by Dennis M Dow Jr (Member # 1970) on 01-27-2004, 08:43 PM:

I liked this movie the first time I saw it...... moved a little too slow in subsequent screenings.
As much as I dislike Sean Penn thought he was great in this role..Didn't think Bacon and Fishburne showed good chemistry as partners. Tim Robbins was also excellent. However I wanted to shoot Marcia Gay Harden's character.... She was just an annoying piece of [bs]

The storyline was interesting and acting good (for most part) 3 outta 4stars