I watched Mystic River yesterday.
It is was so much typical Clint Eastwood drama. I have also watched his earlier award-winning flick “Million dollar baby”.
Each of his leading actors is portrayed as troubled people. They either have a traumatic upbringing or a tumultuous relationship with their parents/home. And it is always the unrelated friends or discovered acquaintances who help the protagonist in a big way to overcome the problems they have faced during movie.
An eerie feeling about how life would have been different had the characters made or not made a few decisions which they ended up making. Thats what i felt upon watching Dave Boyle from Mystic River. As Dave is being killed by Jimmy; I thought why did Dave not tell the truth to his wife? His sufferings as a child were well-known to the entire town; so why hide it from wife dear? Also why did he not simply gather strength to tell at least some story to his wife if not the truth?
Also in question is his wife Celeste. Why does she not believe Dave? He looked so harmless in the marriage and the contrary to this is not mentioned in the movie. What was the need for her to approach Jimmy with her doubts? She would have saved her hubby had she only managed to wriggle the truth from him. Dave got killed in the process. And all that Celeste was left with was desperation, heart-break and loneliness.Her one inane action left her son despondent.From the look of it,Dave was a very doting father.Jimmy among others is very predictable. He did what he thought was necessary and is also clear that had the police nailed the killers earlier, Dave would have never been killed.
At the end of the movie I felt very bad for Dave. Such an innocuous person bore the brunt of everything;circumstances, relatives, his own attitude and finally LUCK.We are left with Orphaned Micheal, heartbroken and crestfallen Celeste, repentant Jimmy, helpless Sean and unlucky but dead Dave!!
Mind over matter 