Thriller - Mystic River

Mystic River is a thriller movie directed by Clint Eastwood. It was initially released in the USA in 2003 and features Sean Penn who won the Academy Award for best actor, Tim Robbins who won the Academy Award for best supporting actor, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden and Emmy Rossum.

Sean (Kevin Bacon) and Jimmy (Sean Penn)

The opening scene relates the kidnapping of a kid, Dave Boyle, who was playing with two friends. He is sequestered a couple of days. But the film takes place a long time after this tragedy, when boys have become men. One night, Dave (Tim Robbins) comes back home with blood on his hands and tells his wife that he was mugged by a man that he may have killed. However, his wife (Marcia Gay Harden) doesn't find any news about the man in the newspaper. Both keep it secret.

The following day, a young woman's car is discovered, filled with blood. The girl, who is Jimmy Markum's daughter (Emmy Rossum), is found dead and more precisely murdered. The father (Sean Penn), who was one of the chilhood friends of Dave and also his brother-in-law, wants to kill his daughter's murderer before the police finds the latter. Actually, the detective who takes up the girl's case (Kevin Bacon) is the third boy of the beginning. Therefore, the three boys find themselves together again in this strange situation.  

All the movie is based on these two mysteries, which seem very close. The investigation concentrates little by little on Dave, but is he really the culprit  ? That's the question. 

The movie is considered as a thriller (and a very good !) for differents reasons. 

First, the central protagonists who are Jimmy, Dave and Sean face death. Jimmy faces the death of his daughter, Dave faces the death of the man who has killed and also his own death. Sean faces the death because he is a detective.

Then, the main storyline for the protagonists is a quest : find the culprit. Sean tries with the investigation's way whereas Jimmy is intent on finding him before, in order to kill him and avenge his daughter. He's helped by two bad guys of the family. Dave, for his part, wants to hide what he has done and not to be considered as guilty. Dave is very vulnerable but it doesn't seem that Sean and Jimmy can be put down.

The main plotline focuses on a mystery : the mystery of the woman's death. Who and Why ? Until the end, we don't really know who is the murderer, even if we make some suppositions.

Moreover, the film's narrative construction is dominated by the protagonists' point of view. We follow the police enquiry thanks to the Sean's point of view. A large part of the movie is filmed with the Jimmy's point of view to show how he tries to take revenge on the culprit for the murder of his daughter. The Dave's point of view is also very important in order to increase the tension because he's very scared and feels uncomfortable all the time.
The characters are very realistic in their representation on screen. The father's reaction when he learns his daughter's death is very natural and his mourning too. The attitude of Sean, who is detached and involved at the same time, is exactly the behavior of a policeman. They're not superheroes and Dave, who has made a very good deed, protecting a boy from a pedophile, isn't the heroe that everybody applauds but he's a simple human, "the boy who escape from wolfs".
Sean, as a policeman, wants to find the culprit and bring him to court. Jimmy, as a father, want to avenge his daughter but it's a personal justice.

At first, I didn't know which movie to choose because even if I love thriller books, I don't know so much thriller movies o series. Mystic River was in the teacher's list and as I love the director Clint Eastwood, I was directly attracted to the film Mystic River. During the week-end, I watched him with a friend in english with english subtitles and I found it so interesting, moving and exciting. And, of course, with a lot of suspense!