Feb. 10, 2004 - 8:21 am
back on my mission to see all of the Oscar Best Picture nominees for the year, I watched Seabiscuit last week. it was pretty ok. i guess it was just slightly better than what i was expecting, but not much. so Keith and i made plans to go see Mystic River on Saturday after our weekly run. he refuses to see Master and Commander with me. i may have to get Greg to go to that one with me. he's the only other person that's expressed an interest. i guess that makes sense since he and i are the only ones that really go all out on trying to guess as many of the Oscar winners correctly as we can. i hope i can beat my score from last year...we'll see.
Mystic River is about a small community in Boston where a murder takes place. a man's daughter is killed and there aren't really any suspects other than the young boy she was dating against her father's wishes. there's also another plotline that exists where one of the father's friends says that he has killed a mugger on the same night as the girl was killed. this is Tim Robbins' character. he was sexually abused as a child and his wife starts to see that even if he did actually kill a mugger (which she becomes more doubtful of in each scene), he is definitely starting to lose his grip on reality.
it's a very thrilling story and i was constantly interested in what was going on. all of the acting was excellent, aside from Laura Linney who i utterly detest. it also has a great idea for the ending. the bad thing is that there are some major flaws thrown into the ending. Keith was actually pretty pissed off at the end. there's this scene where Jimmy's wife (Linney) is telling him how great he is and how he could "rule this town." and it just doesn't make any sense or have anything to do with anything. it's a very intense monologue and you hate them for making you watch it.
overall it's a good film, but the ending really screws up a lot of things. it's simultaneously a good ending with a lot of intrigue and intensity and a bad ending with a lot of useless garbage that has no place in this story. not a Best Picture if you ask me. it was lucky to be nominated.