We’ve had Mystic River out from Netflix since late April. Friday night, we finally made time for it. I was looking forward to this movie, perhaps too much, since I didn’t love it.
The opening scene, which ripples through the rest of the story, is ominous: one of three boys is abducted and sexually abused for four days before escaping. What’s not clear is why this event also disrupts the lives of the other two boys even decades later. The interactions between the three of them are broken, and that’s plausible. Yet it feels a bit overblown.
Strangest part is the brief vignette at the end, where Sean Penn’s wife — previously in the background — comes out with a rip-roaring endorsement for Penn’s criminal actions because he’s defending his family. The tone isn’t surprising in this film, but the voice is.
Metacritic score of 84 is too high.