Amy Adler
In a rougher area of Boston 30 years ago, Jimmy (Sean Penn), Sean (Kevin Bacon) and Dave (Tim Robbins) are playing street hockey when the puck goes down the drain. Now without "game", the trio starts writing their names in wet cement on a public sidewalk. Suddenly, a car pulls up....its the cops! Well, they have a badge anyway. Scaring the kids, Sean points out that he lives across the street. But, Dave, who lives one street over, is ordered to get in the car so they can talk to his parents. Crying, Dave does. However, its soon obvious to the neighbors that Dave has been abducted; he escapes four days later. Now, flashing forward, Dave and Jimmy still live in the neighborhood, with Jimmy owning a corner store and Dave doing odd jobs. Both are married and parents. Jimmy's oldest, Katie (Emmy Rossum) is nineteen and from a previous marriage. With second wife, Annabeth (Laura Linney) he has two other daughters, one who is going to have her first communion the next day. Katie works at the store and is going out on the town with two galpals. Concerned about late hours, Jimmy reminds Katie that its an important day for her sister tomorrow. Yes, Dad. But, the next day, she doesn't come to the store for the early shift and she doesn't make it to the church. Unhappily, she has been murdered and the detective on the case is Sean, who moved to a different part of Boston but is with the BPD. Naturally, Jimmy is distraught and has a gang of goons, his wife's brothers, doing their own detective work while Sean tries to reason with his former friend. There are other secrets, too. Dave, who has never been "normal" after his abduction and molestation, came home the night of Katie's death with blood on his person. Wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden) doesn't quite believe his story that he beat up a mugger. Also, Katie, unknown to all, was planning to elope with a man named Brendan Harris, who her father despises. So, what really happened one fateful night and who will pay for the crime or crimes? This fabulous movie is based on an equally fabulous novel by Dennis Lehane. Its Boston setting is seedy and beautiful at the same time and has a ring of authenticity few stories have, as Lehane was born and raised in Boston. Then, too, the actors are superb, with Penn terrifying as the tough guy Jimmy, Robbins touching as the "damaged goods" man, and Bacon rounding out the trio in a quiet, somber performance of power. Harden, Rossum, Linney, Laurence Fishburne, and the rest are great, too.
Sets, costumes, and cinematography are wonderful as well. Add on the amazingly complicated but first-rate tale and Eastwood's terrific direction and what we have, folks, is a ten star, must-see several times movie!
SlyGuy21
The build-up this has is great, it's shot well, it's acted well, the story's interesting, the ending just falls apart. You think the whole movie that Tim Robbins is the one that kills Penn's daughter, but then it throws a twist ending at you that doesn't work. Instead of it being just a sad moment of a man who was abused finally snapping and accidentally murdering someone, it was just a prank gone wrong. It literally pulls a "It's just a prank, bro!" ending. Not only that, but then Penn kills Robbins and finds out like 3 hours later that Robbins didn't kill his daughter. I imagine the ending's there to be some sort of cautionary message about jumping to conclusions, but it's executed so poorly, that it just feels like a misstep to me. It almost feels like they put a sad ending on this to increase it's chances for winning an Oscar, typical "Sad Ending = Oscar Nom" situation. I don't mind sad endings, but I feel like it could've been handled better than this. The movie as a whole is good, the climax just feels kind of rushed and it hurts the final product.
