MYSTIC RIVER
just rewatched. Sean Penn the actor I most like watching? and Kevin Bacon I also like. and Tim Robbins as Dave here is so sad, his walk, his shoulders, his loose face. the scene that devastates, I did not remember whether he kills him or not, is Penn as Jimmy by the river with Dave, telling him to admit what he did. and Dave stops trying to tell the truth and says Yes, I did it. and Jimmy says Why? and Dave says She reminded me of a dream I had. Jimmy: A dream? Dave: Of youth. I don't remember having one.

Mystic River (2003) - IMDb user comments
Falls sort of greatness but superb nonetheless, 30 November 2004
Author: Roland E. Zwick from United States:
The screenplay makes the pain that each of these men experiences vivid. The grief Jimmy feels over the loss of his beloved child, the psychological torment Dave suffers as a result of his abuse, and the bewilderment and loneliness Sean experiences from a failed marriage all become integral to this dark tale of bitterness, revenge and attempted healing.
Penn hits all the right notes as a man facing the worst experience life could possibly throw at a person - the murder of one's child - trying to make sense of a tragedy that defies any rational explanation. Robbins beautifully underplays the role of a man scarred forever by what happened to him in his youth, now endeavoring to function as an adult when he was robbed of any semblance of a childhood. Bacon is excellent as the man who attempts to put all the pieces together, not only of the case but of the shattered lives he and his two buddies have been living all these years.
The plotting, particularly towards the end, often feels more contrived than it needs to be. Laura Linney, as Jimmy's second wife, has a key Lady Macbeth moment late in the film that might have been effective had we been more fully prepared for it and had her character been more thoroughly developed throughout the course of the film. Still, these are minor quibbles when it comes to a movie as finely acted and directed as this one is.
Perhaps it is just an odd coincidence that three of the very best movies of 2003 - '21 Grams,' 'The House of Sand and Fog' and 'Mystic River' - all suffer from the same tendency on the part of the filmmakers to move away from reality and towards melodrama and contrivance in the final act. huh 21 grams same year? I remember seeing that, in theater, w rg, early on in chicago. maybe did not see Mystic River until later on dvd but assumed it was earlier.

from same reviewer:
re 21 Grams (2003) (Comments by author -alphabetical by title)
a masterpiece, 2 May 2004
The film focuses on three initially unrelated individuals whose lives intersect at a single tragic event -- a hit-and-run accident that kills a man and his two young daughters who are crossing the street at the moment of impact. The incomparable Sean Penn plays Paul Rivers, a chain-smoking heart patient who gets a new lease on life when he becomes the donor recipient of the man killed in the accident. Naomi Watts is Christina Peck, a young reformed drug-addict and wife and mother of the three victims. Benicio Del Toro is Jack Jordan, a former petty criminal who's turned his life around by `finding Jesus,' yet who suffers a life-changing and soul-destroying experience when he runs over the three victims, then flees the scene. The anguish experienced by each character is conveyed in agonizing detail by these three brilliant performers.
`21 Grams' is really about how each of us learns to cope with unspeakable unbearable (not esp about what cannot be spoken) tragedy in our lives. Paul feels a need to bond with the woman whose husband gave him renewed life, even if that bond, and the feeling of personal gratitude and responsibility that comes with it, requires him to take away another man's life. Christina, now utterly bereft of all that gave her life meaning, finds she can only cope with the utter senselessness of her loss by seeking retaliation on the man she knows is responsible for her emptiness. Jack undergoes a grave spiritual crisis as he lashes out at God for - as he comes to see it - making him an unwitting participant in the tragedy. Christina and Jack, in particular, have a great deal in common, since both have succeeded in shaking off the problems of a troubled past, only to have their source of salvation (in her case, her family and, in his, religion), mercilessly pulled out from under them.
`21 Grams' is the single best movie I have seen in years, a complete artistic triumph for all involved. It will leave you reeling.