Mystic River -- 2003 -- R

Of all the movies I watched this last weekend, this one probably is the one I knew the least about. It's one of those that continually pops up on the best-of-the-best lists, but you since you never hear anyone talk about it, you're not so sure. Well, me being one of those people who likes to watch movies almost completely blind to the plot and everything, it was perfect.

This film has at its center, three characters: Jimmy, Sean, and Dave. Can you get more everyman names than that? They live in a small town that I never really paid attention to the name of, and the very first thing that happens is Dave is taken away by the police, or so it seemed. Turns out Dave was actually kidnapped and abused before he escaped to return home a different kid.

Fast forward thirty years; yeah, thirty years. Jimmy's 19 year old daughter turns up murdered and Dave came home that same morning with blood on his hands. Dave claims it was a mugger he killed, but his wife isn't so sure after finding out about Jimmy's daughter. Sean grew up to be a homicide detective, and he has to work this case where his childhood friends are both victim and suspect, but while he knows Dave hasn't been all right in the head since he was kidnapped, he is certain Dave is no murderer, despite the overwhelming evidence against him.

Now, isn't that synopsis much better than Knock, Knock? It makes for a great story with the potential of twists and pitfalls, especially when you find that Jimmy has his own contacts who going around doing their own interviews since Jimmy wants to find the guy before the cops do and "take care of him." Secrets come out all over the place that further serve to twist the plot and delve into the characters and their personalities, so we can really relate to them or at least feel for them.

The only complaint I have is the rather throwaway subplot of Sean's wife who ran off at some point prior to the story, and she calls periodically to not say anything to him. It's a bit that is only there to give him some kind of a satisfying ending (I guess) in the other throwaway section: some big parade thing at the end. Here I thought the movie was over, and we get this tag ending of a parade. The only purpose of this parade that I could see was to show the characters following the end of the story, but it didn't really tell us anything we couldn't assume from the rest of the movie. By my reckoining, everything was wrapped up fairly neatly before this.

Those being very minor issues, this movie was overall very good. It was engaging from the start and kept me curious and guessing till the end. I really enjoyed watching it, and though it was over 2 hours in length, I don't regret this one. Well done.