Mystic River

Clint Eastwood's masterful MYSTIC RIVER is a murder mystery set in South Boston. A murder reunites three men who have been friends since childhood. Grippingly powerful performances from the entire cast -- Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Marcia Gay Harden, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, and Laura Linney -- combined with gritty photography, an exceptionally emotional script, and a convincing working-class Boston setting make this film one of Eastwood's most consistent and penetrating works, perhaps his best.

Though they live in the same houses where they grew up, Jimmy (Penn), Dave (Robbins), and Sean (Bacon) have drifted apart over time. Their distance is due to a disturbing and violent episode that occurred when they were children. Even now, as adults married with kids, they have never managed to overcome their fear and guilt about what happened. Dave and his wife (Harden) still live next door to Jimmy, who is married to a tough blonde (Linney) and has three daughters. When Jimmy's 19-year-old girl is murdered, he turns to Sean, who works as a policeman, and delivers an ultimatum: find the killer fast or I'll go after him myself. With a sense of dreadful inevitability worthy of a Greek tragedy, all increasingly suspect the killer is the person they least want it to be.