Mystic River

I really enjoyed the film Mystic River. For the most part, I love Clint Eastwood as a director – and I think he did a great job on this film. The film had several elements which really stuck out to me: music, lighting, cross cutting and the car abduction. The piano piece from the intro sequence appeared several times later in the movie and was perfectly haunting.  The film used lighting really well to convey different emotions. A lot of the film had very dark lighting, which would contrast with the very bright light of happier scenes.  Another technique that was very effective was the cross cutting of various scenes. The film had parallel scenes several times throughout its length, pitting two different scenes against one another for suspense or for drama. I felt it was very effective. The recurring theme of the car abduction from the intro was also a very strong theme throughout the film. I like how it was shown to affect different characters in different ways. It really summarized how one event can really change a person (or people’s) lives forever.