River Bloat

reviewed Thu, 09 Oct 2003

Kevin Bacon sure has a jones for vigilante vengeance movies: Sleepers, Stir of Echoes, Footloose (he was the vigilante of dance, baby!). Here he is in the inexplicably overpraised Mystic River, a stodgy, workmanlike adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel that I know I read but can't remember, about three men, friends in childhood, and the evil done to one of them that resonates throughout all their lives. Unfortunately, this particular Clint Eastwood examination of the after-effects of violence is more Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil than Unforgiven -- torpid and uninvolving. The story lost any power it might have had once I began remembering how the book turned out -- and I remembered that I thought the ending was stupid and a cheat.

One of the first things I noticed about the movie was the overdone Mahss-achusetts accent affected by most of the cast. It's representative of the movie as a whole, unfortunately: obvious and excessive. The movie tells rather than shows at every turn and hammers home the musical cues. Although most of the actors acquit themselves well, Tim Robbins lamentably overdoes the histrionics as well as the accent.

Sean Penn has the occasional burst of excess emoting, but by and large, he's a compelling, intense presence; he draws your eyes to him whenever he's on screen. Kevin Bacon is good, too, and partners well with Laurence Fishburne. Their performances are welcome graces that save the movie from being a complete waste of time, but they're not enough to recommend it.

Back to homepage
Reviews A to F
Reviews G to L
Reviews M to R
Reviews S to Z
Search