Mystic River

Mystic River is among Clint Eastwood's best films. It is a nuanced and complex drama of fate with finely drawn characters.

Jimmy, Dave and Sean are good friends, but the friendship is broken the day two men posing as police officers drive off with Dave and abuse him for several days until he escapes, traumatised for the rest of his life. It could just as well have been Jimmy or Sean, but it was Dave, and it becomes decisive for the course of the boys' lives.

25 years later Jimmy's teenage daughter is found brutally murdered. By chance Sean, who works as a detective, is put on the case. Suspicion slowly gathers around Dave, whose alibi is shaky. Even his wife Celeste suspects him, for on the night of the murder Dave comes home with blood on his clothes and an incoherent explanation. Jimmy, who is no angel himself, launches his own investigation, so woe betide whoever is to blame for his daughter's death!

The murder mystery may drive the story, but the core of Mystic River is the drama of fate, the tragic event that has a colossal impact on the rest of the three boys' lives. This excellent tragedy is marred, however, by a morally dubious ending in which vigilantism is defended in distasteful fashion - or so it seems, at least. Had the film only been 5-10 minutes shorter, the message would have been crystal clear, for the last scenes are so ambiguous (and superfluous) that they muddy the film's message.