wanted to watch this movie for quite some time, mostly because it was directed by Clint Eastwood and 3 relatively good actors are in the cast. I am talking about Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon. They are not great actors, but they are there…And I shouldn’t forget Laurence Fishburne, as Kevin Bacon’s partner.

So, when I found myself time to rent it and watch, I expected to really enjoy it. I didn’t read any opinion about the movie before, I didn’t want to.

So, I watched the movie and, when it ended, I felt a bitter taste. This is not because how the actors are playing, but because of what this movie lets you think: that you can kill and get away with it, that you can kill an innocent man and get away with it, EVEN that a police officer knows about your crime. Yes, we know that in real life the good doesn’t win all the time, but to leave this impression, that you can kill not only one, but two or even more people and get away with it, it’s more than I can accept.

The story unfolds in a grim way, everything is almost grey or dark in the movie, like you expect that something is going to happen.

The story starts with three children, friends and living in the same neighbourhood, playing hockey on the street. They are Dave (Tim Robbins), Jimmy (Sean Penn) and Sean (Kevin Bacon). As they see some concrete just been laid, they decided to write their names in concrete. They don’t finish doing this, when a car stops and two strangers, posing as police officers, start bullying the boys and tried to convince them getting in their car. Only Dave do this and a horrendous 4 days ordeal starts for him, an ordeal that will follow him his entire life and will alienate the way he sees the life and the others.

Many more years later, we join the three friends, now not close to each other, but still living in the same neighbourhood. Dave has his own family and a boy, Jimmy is an ex-convict who knows is a family man and Sean is a police officer who has problems in his marriage, his wife just run of him.

The reason that the three friends are unwillingly brought together is the brutal murder of Jimmy’s 19 years old daughter. Murdered in the same night when Dave comes home late in the night with blood spilled all over his clothes and with a bad wound in the palm of his right hand. He tells his wife that a mugger tried to steal from him and he went mad and almost killed the mugger. But his wife doesn’t believe him and not even you, as you watch the movie, don’t believe him. And his strange behaviour makes him actually the prime suspect in Jimmy’s daughter murder.

Sean is the police officer assign to investigate the case and he needs to be a little bit coldhearted in order to do his job. But he can’t be like that, as these are his old friends.

We start learning bits and pieces from the three friends life since their childhood until present. Their life wasn’t easy, especially for Dave, haunted by his childhood 4 days ordeal. Unfortunately for him, as I said before, his behaviour makes him the prime suspect and when even his wife tells Jimmy that she thinks he killed Jimmy’s daughter, his fate is done. Jimmy will kill him, after getting him drunk, on the shores of the mystic river, only to find out next day that the killer was someone else and Dave sort of told the truth about what happened to him that infamous night. I am not going to tell you who was the killer, this is not the point of this opinion.

Sean knows that actually Jimmy has done something horrible to Dave, but he doesn’t do anything. Unacceptable for a policeman. And so, Jimmy gets away with this cold blood murder of an innocent man. He gets away the same way he got away with the murder of someone who talked to the police about him, years before.

This is what I dislike about the movie, that leaves this message: you can get away with murder. This is not right. It doesn’t matter how good the actors played in the movie (they are doing their part brilliantly, I must admit, Tim Robbins being, for me, the best, with Sean Penn second), how good the movie is directed (Clint Eastwood knows how to do a movie) or how much acclaims this movie got since it was launched. For me, this movie is simply just NOT CORRECT !


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age