mystic river

[alexeye]

i FINALLY got around to seeing it, and overall i was very impressed. as usual, eastwood's strengths lie in creating an amazing texture of a very specific time and place. plus, his talent in directing actors is masterful - i thought tim robbins was particularly impressive, especially since he's been coasting for a few years now.

my problems with it were largely structural, and i felt that eastwood hit us over the head with the metaphors pretty early on (i could have really done without the whole "names in cement" thing), and it really pulled me out of the amazing mood, and the little world the film had constructed. the end had similar problems, and linney's character, with her lady macbeth overtones, came out of left field in the closing sequence. marcia gay harden's evocation of a lost woman was heartbroken - in the final scenes, you can see the future trajectory for her and her son, and it's pretty hard to take.

all in all, it's no unforgiven, but it's the second-best work eastwood's done to date.