Toronto

One should be leery of a film when critics hype it as "the story takes a backseat to the acting." The movie usually ends up being something of a bore. Well, that's exactly the case for Mystic River. This movie stretches its thin content over a period of nearly two hours and fifteen minutes. Sure, Sean Penn gave a good performance, but was it Oscar-worthy? Uh, no. Not when up against Ben Kingsley or Johnny Depp. And in the Best Actor category? I do believe Tim Robbins should have been in that category instead, with Penn swimming in the supporting actor pool. And Robbins actually deserved his award. I don't want to ruin the ending, but it was a real letdown for more than one reason. And when the final credits began to roll, I found I was morally disgusted by it. I felt like I was being asked to be sympathetic towards Sean Penn's character, when in reality, he was a scum-sucking pig who deserved the tragedy he suffered near the beginning of the film (even though the actual victim did not) Don't get me wrong, it's still an okay movie. Even though we're mostly watching detectives Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne instead of Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, the mystery is a bit on the intriguing side, and there's no way you can imagine the ending will be as predictable as you think it is. But when a lame plot device like "Oh, did you listen to the 911 tape? " "No, I thought you did, let's listen to it, " three-quarters of the way into the movie serves up the key to the mystery, you have to wonder how long the writer actually tried to conceive of a believable story. Overall, an okay film, but to be considered worthy of a best picture Oscar, well, that's just plain silly, isn't it..

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