Mystic River, 2003

Mystic River, 2003
Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Laura Linney, Laurence Fishburne



Stage: Home theatre, late Saturday night


Mystic River in short: Childhood friends Jimmy Markum, Sean Devine and Dave Boyle reunite following the death of Jimmy's oldest daughter, Katie. Sean's a police detective on the case, gathering difficult and disturbing evidence; he's also tasked with handling Jimmy's rage and need for retribution.



Preps: None in perticular. Clint is the man. Don't need any special intro.


Reality: One of the better ones in his biography. Speaking about Eastwood. Plus, Penn got an oscar for his performance. It is as I always claim, strong story makes the movie. Marry it to a great director, hence success. In this case, I am speaking about a devastating touching story about past events that can haunt you from the childhood on and catch up later, when you think you have seen it all. It is a movie about friendship that can last an eternity, yet get broken in an instance if the right button is pushed - in this sense the death of a daughter of a part of a great friendship.
You feel they get reunited, yet they find out the barriers that are driving them apart. You see how their lives turned out and try to imagine how would it have been if they haven't been faced with a such trauma when they were eleven. The movie makes you think about all the individuals that were submerged to any kind of violence and the consequences they needed to face, at that age, or much later. And how many of those ended up in institutions? The stars know..
Eastwood knit a spectacular out of a sad story and I am in it up to my toes. The chill ends in my veins when a friend murders a friend and finds out he made a mistake. The irony in one of the last scenes is the last nail in my coffin. I am surrounded in sadness, depression and hardness of the moment. The blood spilt in vain is running in my blood stream as well and I am really touched by scenes with such a terror in the eyes. Penn and Bacon are brilliant, also Tim Robbins. The cast is supreme, the scenario is brilliant, the director exceeds every last bit of my expectations. I love the movie.


My personal rating: 9,0 (beautiful, touching, filled with emotions. A must see).


Mystic river on IMDB

My name is Sam, 2001

My name is Sam, 2001
Director: Jessie Nelson
Cast: Sean Penn, Dakota Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer


Stage: Home TV selection, Sunday issue late at night.



My name in short: Sam Dawson has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. He works at a Starbucks and is obsessed with the Beatles. He has a daughter with a homeless woman; she abandons them as soon as they leave the hospital. He names his daughter Lucy Diamond (after the Beatles song), and raises her. But as she reaches age 7 herself, Sam's limitations start to become a problem at school; she's intentionally holding back to avoid looking smarter than him. The authorities take her away, and Sam shames high-priced lawyer Rita Harrison into taking his case pro bono. In the process, he teaches her a great deal about love, and whether it's really all you need.



Preps: Also a back-comer; I have seen this beautiful movie several times. Need to take it under the critical eye



Reality: The philosophical question/statement around which the world is revolving in this case is - "You can only be a normal parent, if you are of average intelligence." or on the other hand "All you need is love" approach, which allows doubt in the first statement and lets a parent be parent, even if it has the mind of a seven year old child. Have you noticed a lot of intelligence in 7 year old children? Well, this movie implies they aren't as intelligent we want to expose them.

Anyhow, this is not the direction I want to head into. But the dilemma, what kind of intelligence you need to have to be the best parent a child can get, intrigues me to think about it a lot after seeing this. Is intelligence really a pre-requisite? It seems analogue to the problem most companies face, when they want to employ a graduate, when there isn't a single point of evidence that this person will act better or do better work/job/activities than the one that didn't come to this high level of education. Vice versa, number of cases really show that the characteristics of one person as oppose to one's intelligence will make that person prosper on that position. Still, there are some systems that define ability of persons in this very neandertal way. In this case the parent, Sean Penn takes action on the court of law, seeking justice and fighting against social service standards, which claim he cannot be a parent that a child would benefit from. Michelle Pfeiffer, on the other hand, in a brilliant role of a depressive attorney, never willing to give up or to claim that she is wrong or that she failed in any kind of way. Rushing through her life without noticing the colours around her, she becomes posessed in bringing the young child back into her father's arms.

A story to remember and a story that takes a special place in our hearts, similar to Philadelphia, Dangerous minds, The story of Us, Erin Brockovich, etc. These are all similar movies (if we just look at them from a perspective of a message they bring.). My name is Sam won't bring any proper solutions, I am sure such stories happen on every day basis. Still, spreading the idea in the viral way (and as a media, movie is more than appropriate), will make people think and impact tem in a long run. This is one of the goals of the movie.
Is it pretentious to think that children love their parents and don't care if they are rich, poor, intelligent, witty, etc, regardless of their age and political views? No, I think it's reality. A child at the age Lucy is in this movie, loves a father without prejudice. It's the system that labels him and as depicted, because of the lack of intelligence, even a high-end lawyer cannot help him to get treaded by the system. Under pretentious mask that they are helping what is in child's best interest. Not likely. Watch it and think about it. What could a parent do more than fight to the very end?


My personal rate: 8,5 (a brilliant case, brought to the court, fighting virtues and ideals, what's wrong and what's right)


My name on IMDB

The Tree of Life, 2011

The Tree of Life, 2011
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain






Stage: Home theatre


The tree of life in short: The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.


Preps: One of the hot ones in the movies now. I am wondering, if the fame is perceived for a reason or is it just Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, holding hands and packing up the place with people.



Reality: In this case, I am terribly wrong. The cast is brilliant, however the movie itself is strong and solid. It rocks the veins and makes you truly think about relationships you had with your parents, possibly still have and the way they impact the way you are living now. I suppose most of the shown facts about living in 50'es, as it is vividly shown in this piece, is absolutely honest. In sense, that it must have been normal to obey without saying. Kind of militaristic growing up. It is still very alive in some parts of the world, however I suppose that kids nowadays could see this picture as totally wrong - if coming from EU or US, or some more "supposed-to-be" - liberal spots of the world. At least with its outside face, that is.

Growing up, striving for father's attention and when getting it, getting a kick in your face, showing that he loves you. Aiming for some love and getting hard time in return. With the mother, the perfect figure of "father knows what's best for all of us". In that time it wasn't really common for women to work - they were more housewifes than something else. This also meant, they were somehow depending on the male side of the marriage to take care of the financial part and also, almost always represented the firm, solid opinion, with which you could not agree, still had to accept it, as the God of the house spoke.

In this sense, you are following a sad (sometimes even touching in positive sense) story and yearning for love of the parents. Also, in what way it can influence on your personality once you are grown. Somehow in his adult suit, the boy is still inside the man, yearning for his spot in the world. I see him as a distracted person, not knowing the role, making up for all the bad things that he did in his mind, while digging in the past, puzzling his mind with thoughts of past and father.
In some sense, we all need to think about our roots. However, the thinking in this piece evolves in some sort of distortion of one's mind. All deriving from harsh education and bringing up. Being first of three boys sometimes ends in parents giving extra hard time to the first that came. Because they need an example and the environment also expects it. Seen it also in present time, and in my opinion it can create a wreck out of a human being, once he/she is an adult. In this case, excellent show-up, how things can turn and how inverted can one person become with the fear that is chasing him way after him growing up into adult.
Side role, the mother, is also astounding. I think I could never imagine having myself in that period. On the other hand, once you are put into a situation and don't know that it's something else than what it should be (under circumstances, I firmly believe that most of the relationships between parents and children in that time were formalized in the same manner), well, if not proven otherwise, even if someone tortures you, you might believe it's the right thing. I am trying to say, that maybe this arrangement couldn't work in present time in our countries. However, in that time, a lot of distorted people were made in the same manner. Only in that time, it seemed OK with them. You can only count the victims afterwards.


My personal rating: 8,5 (a worthy movie to see and embed into your soul).

The tree of life on IMDB