When word came down that Clint Eastwood was planning to aim his directorial guns at an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's haunting novel Mystic River, I admit that I winced a little. I had recently seen Eastwood all but destroy my memory of another contemporary crime novel, Michael Connelly's Blood Work. Eastwood has a predilection these days for adapting crime novels, evidenced by his work on Andrew Klavan's True Crime and David Baldacci's Absolute Power, as well as his adaptation of John Berendt's true-crime work, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I wouldn't say any of these previous films was a rousing success, and so I approached Mystic River with some trepidation, hoping he would get it right.

He got it mostly right.

With a powerful script by Brian Helgeland, who also penned the tremendous adaptation of James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential, Eastwood has created a film that does justice to Lehane's character-driven tragedy. He has gathered a very strong ensemble of actors, and he's put them through the emotional ringer in service of a story that you might call a Boston street opera, in the words of Mystic River's author. This is a tale of murder and betrayal, in which all the players are very much human. It's at once a police procedural and a dark, textured tragedy with an elemental dramatic foundation. Some have likened the story to Shakespearean or even Greek tragedies. And in Eastwood's hands, Mystic River is a heavy, internal film that's only occasionally strained, only occasionally sour, and in the end it's one of the director's better efforts—a film that relies on powerhouse performances perhaps a bit too much but ends up winning you over with a soul of truth.

Jimmy, Sean, and Dave are best early-teen buddies growing up in a shabby Boston suburb. On one fateful day, they're going about their usual street-hockey routine when an ominous car appears out of nowhere, and their world changes forever. The car ends up driving away with Dave, who becomes the victim of sexual abuse that we never witness. We do, however, witness the effect of the incident on the adult Dave, around whom Mystic River takes place. We're introduced to Jimmy (Sean Penn), Sean (Kevin Bacon), and Dave (Tim Robbins) as grown men, and immediately we can see the specter of the past imprinted on Dave's sadsack features. We can understand, perhaps, why Sean has become a cop, and we can see how Jimmy has become the tough-guy family man that he is. These characters are remarkably, in different ways, defined by that incident 30 years in their past.

Jimmy works serenely at a local grocery shop, alongside his eldest and closest daughter Katie (Emmy Rossum). He has two other daughters with a second wife, Annabeth (Laura Linney), and it's on the eve of one of those younger daughters' first communion that Katie suddenly goes missing. Mysteriously, Dave has come home that same night to his wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden) with his hands covered in blood. Suddenly, all three men are tossed back into each others' lives, as Sean and his partner, Whitey (Laurence Fishburne), search for the truth amidst a murky atmosphere of street crime, tainted friendships, and one haunting memory.

The novel Mystic River is compelling. Obviously, it offers a breadth of character scope that's impossible to duplicate in a 2-hour film. But Eastwood has managed to bring to the screen a great deal of the book's personality and weight. One way the film achieves that is the fact that it was shot on the streets of Boston, precisely the book and film's setting. Another aspect is the film's level of acting. Sean Penn won an Oscar for his role as Jimmy, and when you behold the actor's raw, screaming grief at the knowledge of his daughter's death, you'll understand the Academy's voting. Tim Robbins, another Oscar winner for this film, gives Dave a ghostly brokenness, and in every scene, we see the anguish of his lost childhood. Kevin Bacon turns in the most workmanlike performance, but it works for the role. I never did buy his telephone turmoil with his estranged wife in the film; in the book, it seemed to work better. Finally, I have a particular soft spot for the performance of Marcia Gay Harden as Dave's wife, who is wracked with all kinds of emotion as she privately wonders about Dave's possible involvement in Katie's murder.

Mystic River is a complex tragedy that sometimes tries too hard. Some of the actors' emotional outpourings, although deeply felt, can come across as histrionics. And—this is a fault of the book—the wrap-up involves a coincidence that's a bit tough to swallow. After so much truth and emotional suffering, it's difficult to buy into the story's third-act genre conventions. And the film seems to go on for a couple scenes too many. In particular, one scene involving Jimmy and his wife played better in the book than onscreen. But there's a depth to these characters, a black shared history, that elevates the story from genre. Mystic River is powerful, elemental filmmaking.

HOW'S IT LOOK?

Warner presents Mystic River in a quite impressive anamorphic-widescreen transfer of the film's original 2.35:1 theatrical presentation. Although the film's color palette is muted—a grungy urban brown—the transfer does a great job of staying within those boundaries and maintaining the atmosphere, which is essential to the story and setting. Don't expect oversaturated colors, because they don't have a place here.

Detail is effective, although it fades into softness in backgrounds. Overall, the level of detail and depth gives the transfer a filmlike appearance, and it closely approximates the theatrical experience I remember. However, some slight ringing mars the otherwise perfect presentation. The print itself is pristine.

HOW'S IT SOUND?

The disc offers a Dolby Digital 5.1 that's naturalistic and effective. Mystic River is a dialog-driven film that exudes emotion and values the silences between sounds, and this effort brings those values across effortlessly. Dialog itself is clean and clear, all the way to the high end, and bass is deep and tight when called for. Eastwood's melancholy score is reproduced effectively.

Your surround speakers won't get a huge workout, but I was surprised by the number of times that fascinating ambient effects swirled around me. Stereo separation across the front is wonderful, and sound effects such as passing cars, crowd noise, and helicopter blades create an enveloping experience.

You also get a French Dolby Digital 5.1 dub, and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.

WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

Warner has put together a few versions of Mystic River for DVD—widescreen and fullscreen 1-disc barebones editions, as well as a Deluxe 3-disc set that includes the soundtrack CD as the third disc. I received the Deluxe version to review.

Disc One

On Disc One, the only extra is a scene-specific Commentary by Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon, a low-key affair that's not as exciting or entertaining as it ought to be. The actors, for the most part, speak in somnambulant drones, especially Robbins, whose slurred speech sounds drugged. There are also some significant gaps in the conversation. They do the usual routine of complimenting their director and fellow cast members, as well as the writing of both the novel and the screenplay. But we do get some interesting tidbits here. I enjoyed their conversation about using the source novel as a resource for their characters, and I liked when they spoke of their impromptu rehearsals in their hotel rooms at night. You get a definite feeling for the atmosphere of a Clint Eastwood shoot—pared down, no-frills filmmaking.

Disc Two

Over on Disc Two, you get…well…not as much as you were probably hoping. The supplements amount to a couple of could-have-been-better featurettes and some Charlie Rose interviews, which are only good despite their moderator.

The 23-minute Beneath the Surface featurette is the first and most interesting extra, boasting interviews with Sean Penn, novelist Dennis Lehane, Clint Eastwood, Laura Linney, Tim Robbins, Marcia Gay Harden, Kevin Bacon, screenwriter Brian Helgeland, and Laurence Fishburne. Eastwood makes a big deal about his old-fashioned storytelling, "with no special effects and no CGI," a mildly irksome dig at the film that bested his efforts at the Oscars. The components of this piece that I enjoyed most are the contributions from the writers: Lehane maintains the film is a study of three marriages, and Helgeland sees Mystic River as a Greek tragedy. This piece is presented in 1.78 anamorphic widescreen.

The 12-minute From Page to Screen featurette is more of an EPK fluff piece, recycling many interview snippets from the first featurette, to lesser effect. However, you get a few more insightful comments from Lehane about halfway through. He calls the story a "street opera"—a fascinating term. This piece is, unlike the first, presented in full-frame only. Both featurettes offer French subtitles.

Now we come to The Charlie Rose Show Interviews with Clint Eastwood (41 minutes), Tim Robbins (50 minutes), and Kevin Bacon (19 minutes). These are excellent discussions, thanks to the interviewees, but Rose upholds his reputation as one of the more incapable interviewers in the business. He frequently intrudes on the naturally flowing conversation with inane comments, and sometimes even destroys a conversation tangent that seems to be leading to an interesting thought. But from all the Mystic River participants, we again get a firm notion of the mood of the Eastwood set, and we get many more complimentary comments. Good stuff, if you don't mind Rose.

You also get an anamorphic-widescreen Theatrical Teaser (narrated by Eastwood himself) and an anamorphic-widescreen Theatrical Trailer, both presented in Dolby Digital 2.0.

Disc Three

Disc Three is a CD of the film's Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, composed by Clint Eastwood and his son Kyle Eastwood, along with pianist Brad Hatfield, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. You'll have to decide for yourself whether you consider a film's CD soundtrack to be a compelling extra, but I'm happy to have this moody, heartfelt piece. The tracks are as follows:

1. Mystic River Main Title
2. Abduction
3. Communion/Katie's Absence
4. Jimmy's Anguish
5. Meditation #1, Piano
6. Orchestral Variation #1 of Mystic River music
7. Escape From the Wolves
8. The Morgue
9. Brendan's Love of Katie
10. Meditation #2, Piano
11. Dave's Past
12. The Confrontation
13. The Resolution
14. A Full Heart
15. Meditation #3, Piano
16. Orchestral Variation #2 of Mystic River music
17. Theme From Mystic River
18. Cosmo
19. Black Emerald Blues

WHAT'S LEFT TO SAY?

You'll pay $12 more for the opportunity to get that soundtrack with your set. Is it worth it? You might also consider that these extras are surprisingly forgettable. You get a mediocre commentary, a sparse allotment of video extras, and a few interviews you might have already seen on TV for free. At least I can happily report that the image and sound quality are both top-notch. So, you might want to go with the 1-disc edition.