The dark and ominous film follows the three boys who are now men and living separate lives from each other. One brooding night, Jimmy’s (Sean Penn) 19-year-old daughter, Katie, goes out and doesn’t return home. The same night Dave (Tim Robbins) comes home after night a drinking, suspiciously covered in blood. The other old friend, Sean (Kevin Bacon) comes in as the homicide detective assigned to the case.

While the movies takes as a police drama in a manner of who-dun-it, the greatest resource this film has are the actors. From the three men to the wives of these men, which includes a thoughtful, yet scary scene at the end of the movie by Laura Linney, who plays Sean Penn’s wife, the acting in this movie is some of the most superb jobs to date found in one movie.

Bacon, who doesn’t have more to do than just the norm as a detective, conveys more with body language. While dealing with this murder Sean also deals with his estranged wife who calls him, but never speaks. Dave’s wife (Marcia Gay Harden) doubts her husband’s story of how the blood got on him. A scene she has with Penn later in the movie is moving as she decides to trust someone other than her husband.

Eastwood doesn’t waste time in the movie as each frame has an important element and an important point to the conclusion of the film. Although, the mystery is eventually solved, it isn’t the answer that that is the selling point of Mystic River. It’s the journey that takes each character to the final act and how they then must cope with the consequences afterwards.

A mysterious story, but sensational, should have the Academy Awards knocking on Eastwood’s door.