This movie drew me and my husband in immediately. The acting is superb. We were on the edge of our seat wondering what was going to happen next. However, it is quite gut-wrenching, so if you're looking for a happy story, this isn't for you. If you're looking for a movie that is intelligent and riveting, and will haunt you for awhile, this is a good one.

It is a truism in the world of soap opera (the purest form of modern melodrama) that the characters must always do the dumbest possible thing to propel the story forward. While this is not egregious in melodrama, it is so in drama. Yet, a large portion of film today is pure melodrama. I think of highly lauded films like Michael Mann's Heat as melodrama incarnate.
Another truism in regard to films is that actors turned directors tend to not be very good. Mel Gibson, Ron Howard, and Kevin Costner (Academy Award winners in direction) come to mind, as does Clint Eastwood (another Oscar winner). Perhaps the only actor-cum-director who has proven his chops artistically, though, is Woody Allen, although he was really a stand up comedian, not an actor. Actors tend to direct very ham-handedly, with static camera work, and no real sense of film's visual aspect, and even less skill at understanding what constitutes good story structure. Eastwood is very much in this vein. In his highly lauded Mystic River Eastwood shows that he has everything it takes to direct tv movies of the week, but not serious art. This film is larded with poorly framed scenes, bad lighting, very pedestrian angles, color-strained, as well as bad performances, a horridly unrealistic script, banal music, and too many red herrings.... There are some nice touches- like abused Dave's name drying half-finished in the cement, but they are too little in depth and too few. More often the script, by Brian Helgeland, merely allows wallowing for the actors, and denies them any real chance to show real emotion. Like the poor In The Bedroom, Mystic River had a chance to be an adult meditation on grief, rather than a plot reject from a 1970s cop tv show like Kojack or Starsky And Hutch.
The basic problem is that most moviegoers simply do not understand nor appreciate good writing- everything is homogenized down into a lowest common denominator plot mulch. I've read other critics state that Eastwood is a jazzy director, in that he tends to just riff. Well, maybe so in other films but in this one he's at his Director's 101 worst. The film is dull and predictable, and the acting is forgettable- certainly not indelible. You know this when there is nothing unique about a performance and any other actor could have pulled off the part. So it is with the three main characters.

What a horrible story. There was no satisfaction watching this movie. It was a very poor piece of storytelling. I won't even dare look at the book. It was long. It was slow. It felt like nothing was happening.

The actors and actresses in this movie, while great in many others I've seen them in, were just pitiful. The awful Brooklyn accents were probably the best thing in this movie (I absolutely loathed the accents). Seriously, have any of them listened to someone from Brooklyn? In a word, the accents were butchered.
The movie is replete with pointless red herrings. When you finally learn what really happened...what a huge letdown! I expected more. I don't want to spoil anything (actually, I do, just so no one bothers with this junk), but it was seriously ridiculous.
Like I said before, there is no satisfaction watching this movie. It will not make you feel good. It does not give you any sense of hope or closure that things are all right. Basically, this movie portrays the fact that life is full of Hell and we're all just jacked for being here.
Why would anyone consider this worthwhile? Perhaps it resembles life as it really is. But who in the world wants that? We create and listen and read and watch stories to escape the horrors of this world. There are no morals we learn at the end. There is no brighter tomorrow. There is no land of the rainbow, mostly because the rainbow would be jacked up in this movie. The bad guys would tear it to bits just because it was in their way.
They call it Mystic River. Mystic, because any semblance of decency is beyond our understanding; River, because that's where this junk belongs. So, if you're looking to rip your hair out, watch this movie. I can't even fully describe the taste of bile lingering in my mouth after seeing this.

Awful. Putrid. Vile. Filth.

I have not read the book, so I cannot comment on that aspect. However, I didn't feel like I learned anything about humanity or the human condition from watching this movie. If you invest this much time in watching something, you hope to feel even just a little bit wiser when it's finished. The characters acted predictably and stayed "true" to their stereo-typical character types. No surprises. The 2 stars are for the relatively good acting and for the directing. Overall, though, watching it was a waste of time.

Particularly in the beginning of the movie as *spoiler*, we learn a girl has died. The reaction of her father and mother is just incredibly believable and something I will remember about this film. Hand him a reward for that and the rest.

The pedo-killer had me thinking he's crazy, and I've seen crazy. Maybe not killer crazy, but I've seen sick people. Again, a very convincing performance. Very believable.

Of course my review would not be complete without at least one complaint (hey, I like to give well-rounded critiques)...I would have liked to have not had the young boys as the killers. It just didn't make sense to me. I don't believe the deaf kid loved his brother so much he'd kill for him nor do I believe the boys accidentally shot a girl then had to finish her off before she squealed. I'm just sayin'...