Heroic multiple updates week. Lack of computer access means there are loads of things to talk about from the Christmas period coming down the pipe so regular updates all day for the next couple of days. Hopefully other Do You Seers will be interupting my monotony too.
So might as well start with a film that took me two months to finally get around to seeing, mainly because I knew I was going to appreciate it without really being overly excited by it. It is nice to have prejudices confirmed: Mystic River joins In The Cut as yet another example of what happens when the murder mystery is asked to serve a greater purpose as a message movie. At least here the actual murderer is a bit of a surprise (I only guessed ten minutes before the reveal). But yet again our prime suspect obviously did not do it, and here it is to make a somewhat unclear point about vengeance, child abuse and cod psychology. Clint directs with solid style, this is the archetypal ‘well made film’. The thrills are impeded by the need to explain its message, and the message is obscured by the mystery. And there is nothing mystic about the river.