Mystic River is a 2003 American neo-noir crime drama film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, and starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney. The screenplay, written by Brian Helgeland, was based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. It is the first film in which Eastwood was credited as composer of the score.
In addition to being a critical and commercial success, Mystic River was nominated for six awards at the 76th Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Penn, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress for Harden, and Best Supporting Actor for Robbins. Penn and Robbins won in their respective categories, making Mystic River the first film to win both awards since Ben-Hur in 1959 and last until Dallas Buyers Club in 2013.
Plot
In 1975, Irish-American friends Jimmy Markum, Sean Devine, and Dave Boyle are playing street hockey in Charlestown, Boston. After deciding to write a mural of their names on a patch of wet concrete, two men, claiming to be police officers, kidnap Dave and sexually abuse him for four days until he escapes.
Twenty-five years later, Jimmy is an ex-convict and neighborhood convenience store owner; Sean is a detective with the Massachusetts State Police whose pregnant wife Lauren recently left him, and Dave is a blue-collar worker continually haunted by the abduction and rape he suffered. Jimmy and Dave are related by marriage, Dave's wife Celeste and Jimmy's second wife Annabeth being cousins.
Jimmy's daughter from his first marriage, Katie, plans to run away to Las Vegas with Brendan Harris, a boy from a family Jimmy despises whom she has been secretly dating. One night, Dave sees Katie and her friends at a local bar. That same night, Katie is murdered, and Dave comes home bloodied and injured. He tells his wife that he fought off a mugger and possibly killed him. Sean and his partner Whitey Powers investigate the murder while Jimmy, distraught at his daughter's death, conducts a separate investigation using his neighborhood connections.
A witness statement suggests that Katie may have known her killer. The detectives learn that the gun used to kill her, a .38 Special revolver, was also used in a liquor store robbery in 1984 by "Just Ray" Harris, the father of Brendan. Harris has been missing since 1989, but Brendan claims he still sends his family $500 monthly. Brendan feigns ignorance about Ray's gun. Whitey suspects Dave, who keeps changing the story about his hand being injured. Dave continues to behave erratically, which upsets Celeste to the point that she leaves their home and tells Jimmy she suspects Dave might be involved in the murder.
Jimmy and his friends invite Dave to a local bar, get him drunk and confront him when he is about to vomit. Jimmy admits to Dave that he killed "Just Ray" for implicating him in the liquor store robbery, which resulted in his imprisonment. Dave reveals to Jimmy that he did kill someone that night, but it was not Katie. He beat to death a child molester whom he found with a child prostitute. Jimmy does not believe Dave and pulls out a knife. He promises to let Dave live if he confesses to Katie's murder. However, when Dave admits to killing Katie, Jimmy kills him and disposes of his body in the adjacent Mystic River.
Meanwhile, after finding his father's gun missing, Brendan confronts his mute younger brother "Silent Ray" and his friend John O'Shea about Katie's murder. Brendan beats the two boys, trying to get them to admit their guilt, and then John pulls out Ray's gun and is about to shoot Brendan. Sean and Whitey, having connected the two boys to the murder, arrive and disarm and arrest John and Ray.
The next morning, Sean tells Jimmy that John and "Silent Ray" confessed to killing Katie as part of a prank gone wrong. Sean asks Jimmy if he has seen Dave, who is wanted for questioning in the murder of a known child molester. Jimmy does not answer, instead thanking Sean for finding Katie's killers, but remarks, "if only you'd be a little faster." Sean then asks Jimmy if he intends to send Celeste a monthly $500.
Sean reunites with Lauren after apologizing for pushing her away while Jimmy confesses what he's done to Annabeth, who tells him he is "a king, and a king knows what to do and does it. Even when it's hard." During a local parade, Dave's son Michael waits for his father. Sean sees Jimmy and mimics a gunshot at him with his hand, whereas Jimmy spreads his arms in a "can't help it" gesture.