Mystic River Review

Mystic River refers to the 2003 film directed by Clint Eastwood based on a novel by Dennis Lehane. The movie is about three boys, Jimmy (Sean Penn), Dave (Tim Robbins) and Sean (Kevin Bacon) who grow apart after a kidnapping incident in their childhood. Their lives intersect again when Jimmy's daughter is killed.

At first it isn't clear who killed her, but Dave's erratic behavior causes people to think that it was him. Jimmy, the angry head of a mob, kills Dave in cold blood. The big reveal is that it wasn't Jimmy after all, but a couple of unsuspecting kids. Everybody carries on with their life, as if nothing ever happened.

I could see this being a pretty decent movie if a) it wasn't so long, and b) if something actually happened. 137 minutes is too much time for a movie I can sum up in two paragraphs. I could even see it working as a novel, but not so much as a movie. What do you think?