NS2K:
Saw Mystic River last night... It proves that good Hollywood movies can still be made. The fact that I'm still thinking about it now must mean that it had something going for it - most of the time I usually forget about the movie I've just seen when I'm on my way home in the car.
Pros - Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon (he's come a long way from his Footloose days) and Tim Robbins, Clint Eastwood's directing (the guy sure knows his stuff - he even wrote the music which was actually quite memorable/haunting) and a really involving story.
Cons - Not exactly an up story (if you want laughs don't see this) and for the 2nd half of the movie it gets a bit "squirmy" because you think you can see where the story is going and it's not a nice place. Ultimately it doesn't go there but it goes somewhere else and that someone else isn't nice either. And the "What if I got in the car instead?" motif is pushed a little too far... It makes sense at the beginning but not at the end.
It ended where a new story could have started and I would have actually been quite content sitting there for another 2 hours watching the new story unfold. My prediction: Lord of the Rings will get Oscars for everything but acting, Eastwood will get a surprise nomination for best score and Bacon, Penn, Robbins and Bill Murray will fight it out for best actor.
Rating: RATE!