1. spadenx

   10

   People are idiots, SImple as that. Mystic River is a great film - Great acting by the cast, Interesting story, and a very satisfying ending. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins are untouchable in this.… Expand

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2. AlexR

   4

   wow, I can find some seemingly good aspects about this film if I try, but come on!.. a 10? Award nominations? I just can’t understand it. It’s a decent movie in its genre. It’s got some good (though pretentious) photography. It’s got those classic Hollywood drama technicalities decently (or even well) performed. It’s got pretty good, if not a bit overacted, performances. And it’s got some dark narrative that succeeds in its tough impact, even when such accomplishment uses pretty manipulative, maybe even pathetic, techniques. I will concede all these positive aspects about it with its, I find, pretty logical counterparts; but I wonder how can anyone overlook all this movie’s manipulative inconsistencies, its huge plot holes that don’t quite serve the movie to become great even in its own genre, or, most importantly, its too little sense or meaning! [***SPOILERS***] It is supposed to be about three characters affected by a single event in their lives, the rape of one of them. Sure, the actual molested kid was greatly affected, but we didn’t see enough of him to understand or even feel like the audience of such effect. About the effect in Penn’s character, I can find a thousand better reasons for him to become what he became other than having a friend raped. And Bacon's character? Please, don’t just cram in a neglected wife just to show he was somehow affected too. So what the heck is this movie about? a crime? You don’t really see anything that is really related to the actual execution of the crime until the scriptwriters finally decided they should tell you which unrelated character did it. What else now? The loss of a child and the effect of such a tragedy? That basically adds to 30 minutes of this long movie to be reason enough for the more than two hours it lasts. The link between these three characters? The movie never plunges deep enough on their relationship or on how exactly the relationship had been scarred by that event (or by any other in their lifetimes), to justify the movie’s existence on such basis. I can accept that maybe they succeeded only a little bit more with the torn and conflicted relationship between Penn and Robbins by the end of the movie, but you barely get to grasp it and it is there in a way that seems to have been manipulatively tossed in to increase the drama). So what else can it be about? the shock factor that the manipulations in the movie can bring? Well I guess that’s the most probable excuse for this movie; and at that it does succeed. But I just don’t see how such a frivolous triumph can be awarded with excellent reviews or even any nomination to script, director, or movie. (I don’t get the nomination for actor either, given that his performance in 21 grams was much better and much more credible than his melodramatic one here. How can people who criticize the more sober yet intentionally and pragmatically self-absorbed The Hours for being too melodramatic, praise this performance or this movie as a whole, just doesn’t make sense to me). In general, this is a decent dark mystery drama with the potential of bringing a rather disquieting effect to the viewer (so don’t expect it to be an enjoyable ride); but it simply lacks sense in almost every possible way. However, if you like to suffer for no logical reason, see this movie. If you like the mystery drama genre, you might enjoy it also. Well… as incomprehensible it might be for me, you might still like it given that so many people do, so you might as well give it a try. As for me, after much thought I can only keep disliking it and just try to stop resenting it for the acclaim it did get.… Expand

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     1 of 2 users said yes
3. StevenZ.

   0

   The most overrated movie of all time. Hideous, offensive, and soul-destroying. The kind of movie that tells you life sucks and everything9;s awful, and then fakes the evidence. Every plot twist is rigged and unbelievable, every line is ponderous and humorless, and the experience leaves you thinking there's nothing that can be accomplished in life. And don't blather to me about the "powerful acting." The best performances in this movie--the fine, quiet work done by Kevin Bacon, Laura Linney, and Laurence Fishburne--were, of course, the least acclaimed. All the praise and Oscars went to the overdone hamming of Penn, Robbins, and Marcia Gay Harden (who, to be fair, was given nothing to play but scaredy-cat.) It was embarrassing seeing the great Ms. Linney trying to make that bogus Lady Macbeth scene at the end believable. One of those movies that's trying to impress you rather than tell a story, which you're supposed to learn a lesson from. "Life sucks" is not an original message, nor one that will come as a great surprise to many people, but overpraised hack directors always seem to think they're doing something daring by trotting it out.… Expand

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