Mystic River (novel)

Last updated
Mystic River
DennisLehane MysticRiver.jpg
First edition cover
Author Dennis Lehane
Cover artist Chip Kidd (designer)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publisher William Morrow
Publication date
February 2001
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages416 p. (hardback edition)
ISBN 0-688-16316-5 (hardback edition)

Mystic River is a novel by Dennis Lehane that was published in 2001. It won the 2002 Dilys Award and was made into an Academy Award-winning film in 2003.

Contents

Plot

The novel's plot revolves around three boys who grow up as friends in Boston — Dave Boyle, Sean Devine, and Jimmy Marcus. At the beginning of the story, Dave is abducted by child molesters while he, Sean, and Jimmy are horsing around on a neighborhood street. Dave escapes and returns home days later, emotionally shattered by his experience. The novel then moves forward twenty-five years: Sean has become a homicide detective, Jimmy is an ex-convict who currently owns a convenience store, and Dave is a shell of a man. Jimmy's daughter disappears and is found brutally murdered in a city park, and that same night, Dave comes home to his wife, covered in blood. Sean is assigned to investigate the murder, and the three childhood friends are caught up in each other's lives again.

Film adaptation

Mystic River , the Academy Award-winning adaptation of the novel, was released in 2003. The film was directed by Clint Eastwood and starred Sean Penn as Jimmy Markum (the character's last name was changed from Marcus to Markum for the film), Tim Robbins as Dave, and Kevin Bacon as Sean. Sean Penn won the Best Actor in a Leading Role and Tim Robbins won the Best Supporting Actor for their respective performances. It was also nominated for four other Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Eastwood), Best Supporting Actress (Marcia Gay Harden), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Brian Helgeland).

Awards and nominations

Mystic River won the 2002 Dilys Award presented by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. [1] The same year, it also won the Massachusetts Book Award. [2]

Notes

  1. "The Dilys Award". Archived from the original on 2008-09-16. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
  2. "Book awards Honor Kunitz and Massachusetts authors". Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2015.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clint Eastwood</span> American actor and filmmaker (born 1930)

Clinton Eastwood Jr. is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Penn</span> American actor and filmmaker (born 1960)

Sean Justin Penn is an American actor and film director. He has won Academy Awards for his roles in the mystery drama Mystic River (2003) and the biopic Milk (2008).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Robbins</span> American actor (born 1958)

Timothy Francis Robbins is an American actor, director and producer. He is best known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and for winning an Academy Award and Golden Globe award for his role in Mystic River (2003) and another Golden Globe for The Player (1992).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Linney</span> American actress (born 1964)

Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress. She is the recipient of several awards, including two Golden Globe Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards, and has been nominated for three Academy Awards and five Tony Awards.

<i>Mystic River</i> (film) 2003 American drama film directed by Clint Eastwood

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Penn</span> American actor (1965–2006)

Christopher Shannon Penn was an American actor. He was the brother of actor Sean Penn and musician Michael Penn. Noted as a skilled character actor, he was typically cast as a tough character, featured as a villain or a working-class thug, or in a comic role and had roles in such films as The Wild Life, Reservoir Dogs, The Funeral, Footloose, Rush Hour, Corky Romano, True Romance, Beethoven's 2nd, Short Cuts, The Boys Club, All the Right Moves, At Close Range, Pale Rider, and Starsky & Hutch. During his career Penn had won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his performance in The Funeral. He also provided the voice of corrupt cop Edward "Eddie" Pulaski in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Lehane</span> American novelist (born 1965)

Dennis Lehane is an American author. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including A Drink Before the War. Four of his novels were adapted as films of the same names: Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003), Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010), and Gone Baby Gone (2007) and Live by Night (2016), both directed by Ben Affleck. His short story "Animal Rescue" was also adapted into the film The Drop, noted for being the final film role for actor James Gandolfini.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clint Eastwood filmography</span>

Clint Eastwood is an American film actor, director, producer, and composer. He has appeared in over 60 films. His career has spanned 65 years and began with small uncredited film roles and television appearances. Eastwood has acted in multiple television series, including the eight-season series Rawhide (1959–1965). Although he appeared in several earlier films, mostly uncredited, his breakout film role was as the Man with No Name in the Sergio Leone–directed Dollars Trilogy: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), which weren't released in the United States until 1967/68. In 1971, Eastwood made his directorial debut with Play Misty for Me. Also that year, he starred as San Francisco police inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry. The film received critical acclaim, and spawned four more films: Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988).

The 38th National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on 3 January 2004, honored the best in film for 2003.

The 62nd Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 2004, were held on January 16, 2005. The nominations were announced on December 13, 2004.

The 63rd Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 2005, were presented on January 16, 2006, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in Los Angeles, California. The nominations were announced on December 13, 2005.

The 8th Florida Film Critics Circle Awards, honoring the best in film for 2003, were held on January 2, 2004.

The 7th Online Film Critics Society Awards, honoring films made in 2003, were given on 5 January 2004.

The 29th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, given by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) on January 7, 2004, honored the best in film for 2003. The ceremony was originally called off because of the MPAA screener ban as members felt they could not see all the movies in time for their awards but when that was removed the show was back on.

The 2nd Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2003, were given on December 19, 2003.

<i>Dead Man Walking</i> (film) 1995 British film

Dead Man Walking is a 1995 crime drama film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, and co-produced and directed by Tim Robbins, who adapted the screenplay from the 1993 non-fiction book of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Robbins filmography</span>

American actor and filmmaker Tim Robbins started his acting career in 1982 with a few episodes on the medical drama series St. Elsewhere. His film debut was in the 1984 action film Toy Soldiers. He had minor roles in Fraternity Vacation (1985) and Top Gun (1986) before co-starring in the 1988 romantic comedy sports film Bull Durham with Kevin Costner. He went on to star in the films Erik the Viking with Mickey Rooney (1989), Jacob's Ladder with Elizabeth Peña (1990), Cadillac Man with Robin Williams, and The Player with Greta Scacchi (1992). In 1994, he portrayed Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption with Morgan Freeman. To prepare for his role, he spent time in solitary confinement. He also appeared in the 2000 comedy film High Fidelity with John Cusack. In 2003, he co-starred in Clint Eastwood's neo-noir crime drama film Mystic River with Sean Penn. For that role, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.

Todd Komarnicki is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, and producer.