Mystic River - Review

This a type of movie that is hard for me to review because everything in the movie is good but yet nothing super out of the ordinary. How is the acting? It's good. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins both won Oscars for their performances here plus Kevin Bacon and Lawrence Fishbourne is great too. How's the story? It's interesting. Yet another crime drama taking place in a rundown neighbourhood in Boston, but I like Boston crime dramas. The Town, Gone Baby Gone, The Departed and this. I like seeing homicide detectives questioning people and constantly being suspicious of everything. How's the editing, cinematography, sound, score, production design? Well, we learned in film school that if you don't notice that stuff, it means the filmmakers did a good job. That's all I really have to say about it. No big action sequences I can dive into. Nothing more I can really say about the acting other than they do a good job. I guess the only thing I can mention about the story is that this film does a good job linking a tragedy that happened 30 plus years ago to a tragedy that the characters have to deal with now. Without giving too much away, both tragedies are expertly tied together not only in the fact that someone goes missing, but it is also linked together with the similar emotions the characters have. It will make more sense when you watch the movie I promise. So with a super vague review like this, why even watch this movie? Well, I heard on the radio that movies that require you to think and films that require you to watch characters deal with really intense emotions are even more important now in an age where our attention span is slowly getting shorter and shorter. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to watch mind-numbing comedies once in a while, but it's also refreshing to watch a film that makes you think. Mystic River is a well-crafted crime thriller that is entertaining and thought-provoking. A good one to check out.