Mystic River

[pauraque_bk]

In 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.

Comments

[k2daisy.livejournal.com]

(If anyone knows what the point of the parade scene was supposed to be, please tell me, 'cause I don't know.)

I think the point of the parade was for Celeste to realize she'd betrayed her husband and thus brought about his death and her current status as outsider. That SHE was responsible for what happened to Jimmy, not anyone else.

Which was a total crock, imo. I wasn't fond of the final scenes either, and in fact, once Jimmy was killed I was ready to leave the theater. Like you said, he and Celeste were the best things in the movie.

[pauraque]

The problem with the ending is that's just not the way stories like that are told. Read Hamlet. Read Othello. Everybody dies who's going to die, somebody gets a rhymed couplet to sum the whole thing up, and that's the end. Tragedy doesn't bear being dragged out beyond that.

You have to have confidence that you've told the story properly, that you've given your audience all the information they need to imagine for themselves the impact the deaths might have on those left alive. Spelling it out feels awkward and... over-modern, in a way. Like we can't be trusted to be smart viewers.

[dailyplanet.livejournal.com]

Wow somebody else whose review of Mystic Review matches my thoughts exactly!

I agree about the wife's monologue coming out of nowhere. It was like they realized they had Laura Linney and felt they ought to give her something to do. Something evil and biblical to say!

Also, the parade scene did feel out of place. I caught a few people in our theatre murmuring things along the lines of "Why is this movie still going?"

My friend said to me, "Why are we still watching these people's lives?"

And "We ALL got in that car that day" <-- Quite the cheeseball line. A few people groaned at that one. Definitely not necessary, the way that scene played out.

I think this movie was special for the exceptional acting; the plot was pretty much a Law & Order episode. It was fair that it got the acting Oscars and not Best Picture.

[pauraque]

Something evil and biblical to say!

Hee. I read Roger Ebert's review after I went, and he said something comparing her to Lady MacBeth. Which would be fine, if she'd actually played that role throughout the movie rather than springing it on us at the last second.

And "We ALL got in that car that day" <-- Quite the cheeseball line. A few people groaned at that one. Definitely not necessary, the way that scene played out.

Right -- that was the point where nothing more needed to be said, and nothing more _should_ have been said. The rest of it was just hitting us over the head with points that had already been skilfully and subtly made.

I think this movie was special for the exceptional acting; the plot was pretty much a Law & Order episode. It was fair that it got the acting Oscars and not Best Picture.

I completely agree. It sounds like we had exactly the same reaction to this movie. I'm just puzzled by the rave reviews!

[mark356.livejournal.com]

I would have been very surprised if this movie got Best Picture; much of the cinematography irritated me. It was as if the cameraperson was telling us, "Look! I'm telling a story and I'm giving you just the facts! No gratuitous prettiness here." Even the arial shots did not make me go, "ooh, pretty"; they made me go, "Someone must have taken a camera up in a helicopter to do this."

I think I agree with pauraque's thoughts on it: the acting is amazing, but that doesn't make it a really amazing movie.

[pauraque]

The person I went with thought it played very differently in the book, and that the book was a lot better. That wouldn't surprise me; what makes a good book is often very different from what makes a good movie.