Cry me a Mystic River

Finally saw Eastwood's latest flick last night. Right now, I'm still struggling to understand why that movie would be a candidate for Best Picture.

It's pretty easy to pinpoint where things go wrong--the "fade to white" about 20 minutes before the end. After that, the movie goes downhill, fast. It's not pretty: Laura Linney's character, which has been essentially undeveloped to that point, turns into a Lady Macbeth, and starts spouting random nonsense. Marcia Gay Harden's character is last seen trying to get her son to smile for her. And Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon's last conversation really doesn't work. [And people complained about Return of the King having too many endings. Sheesh.]

One more note--the "score" for this movie is pretty lousy. It's written in best Sondheim fashion: theme and repetition. Good heavens--repeating "1-4-low 7-1" (or whatever that infernal pattern was) over and over again, throughout the movie, doesn't give it atmosphere. It shows lack of creativity.

And, please, don't let Tim Robbins affect a Boston accent ever again. [And, on a more frightening note--would anybody believe that of the three principals in that movie, Kevin Bacon is the oldest?]