Mystic River
Mar. 16th, 2004 12:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkIn a nutshell: About two hours of a good movie, followed by five minutes of an incomprehensible one.
I was deeply impressed by the acting. Tim Robbins couldn't have been better -- that everpresent fear and pain, etched into his face, into his eyes. Marcia Gay Harden far exceeded my expectations; their scenes together were amazing. When I reviewed Lost In Translation, I talked about the difficulty of creating a scene between two characters when we empathize with both of them -- the POV can get slippery and distracting -- but Mystic River didn't have that problem in the least.
I was right there with Dave in his desperate grasping at shards of reality that kept slipping through his fingers. And I was right there with Celeste, her warring feelings of love and terror. That's a credit to both the actors and the director. And probably to the author of the book (though I didn't read it) for creating such dead-accurate characterizations. (It's the fandomer in me that makes me praise original characters as "accurate", but I hope you know what I mean -- they're believable.)
Sean Penn was also very good, though I couldn't feel for his character the way I did with Dave and Celeste. I understood Jimmy, the way his love was channelled and expressed through his prison time, making him predatory and deeply instinctual in his protectiveness. I understood it, I just didn't empathize with it.
Unfortunately, it sometimes seemed the movie had bitten off more than it could chew. The plot thread with Sean's wife didn't pay off, and I didn't care about it. Jimmy's wife's monologue at the end came out of nowhere, given that we barely see her and don't know anything about her until it happens. I also didn't really care about Brendan et al, or at least not at that moment; the solution to the murder seemed too removed from the heart of the story. I would rather have had the scene at the river all in one take -- nothing was added by intercutting the two scenes, and momentum was lost.
Nothing after the shot where Jimmy walks away from Sean down the street was necessary. The parade, Annabeth's monologue, the looks exchanged -- none of it. Jimmy'd already made the point: They *all* got in the car that day. The five minutes after that were just confusing. (If anyone knows what the point of the parade scene was supposed to be, please tell me, 'cause I don't know.)
So, at the end of the day, it's worth seeing for the performances, but it's by no means a perfect film. It wasn't as good as I thought it would be, given the hype.
I was deeply impressed by the acting. Tim Robbins couldn't have been better -- that everpresent fear and pain, etched into his face, into his eyes. Marcia Gay Harden far exceeded my expectations; their scenes together were amazing. When I reviewed Lost In Translation, I talked about the difficulty of creating a scene between two characters when we empathize with both of them -- the POV can get slippery and distracting -- but Mystic River didn't have that problem in the least.
I was right there with Dave in his desperate grasping at shards of reality that kept slipping through his fingers. And I was right there with Celeste, her warring feelings of love and terror. That's a credit to both the actors and the director. And probably to the author of the book (though I didn't read it) for creating such dead-accurate characterizations. (It's the fandomer in me that makes me praise original characters as "accurate", but I hope you know what I mean -- they're believable.)
Sean Penn was also very good, though I couldn't feel for his character the way I did with Dave and Celeste. I understood Jimmy, the way his love was channelled and expressed through his prison time, making him predatory and deeply instinctual in his protectiveness. I understood it, I just didn't empathize with it.
Unfortunately, it sometimes seemed the movie had bitten off more than it could chew. The plot thread with Sean's wife didn't pay off, and I didn't care about it. Jimmy's wife's monologue at the end came out of nowhere, given that we barely see her and don't know anything about her until it happens. I also didn't really care about Brendan et al, or at least not at that moment; the solution to the murder seemed too removed from the heart of the story. I would rather have had the scene at the river all in one take -- nothing was added by intercutting the two scenes, and momentum was lost.
Nothing after the shot where Jimmy walks away from Sean down the street was necessary. The parade, Annabeth's monologue, the looks exchanged -- none of it. Jimmy'd already made the point: They *all* got in the car that day. The five minutes after that were just confusing. (If anyone knows what the point of the parade scene was supposed to be, please tell me, 'cause I don't know.)
So, at the end of the day, it's worth seeing for the performances, but it's by no means a perfect film. It wasn't as good as I thought it would be, given the hype.
