Mystic River is an American Academy Award winning film released in 2003, starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins,Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney and Emmy Rossum. The film was written by Brian Helgeland (based on the novel Mystic River by Dennis Lehane) and directed by Clint Eastwood.

The film opened to widespread critical acclaim. It was nominated for 6 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. Sean Penn won Best Actor and Tim Robbins won Best Supporting Actor.

Tagline: We bury our sins, we wash them clean.

The plot of the film revolves around three kids named Jimmy, Dave, and Sean who were best friends and grew up together in one of Boston's working-class Irish districts. When they were all ten years old, and playing together in the street, one of them (Dave, played by Robbins) is kidnapped by pedophiles and kept for four days. Decades later, all three are adults, still living in Boston, and have drifted apart. Jimmy's (Sean Penn) 19 year old daughter is murdered, while suspicious circumstances swirl around Dave. The crime is investigated by Sean (Kevin Bacon), who has become a police detective.

The climax of the film comes when Jimmy and his friends get Dave drunk. When Dave leaves the bar to go throw up the men follow him out. Jimmy tells Dave that he will let him live if he confesses to killing his daughter; if he does not he will kill him right there and then. When Dave, who we find out was not in fact the killer, admits to the crime in an attempt to escape with his life, Jimmy stabs him in the stomach and shoots him in the face anyway.

We cut to the next morning with Jimmy drowning his sorrows in a bottle of whiskey, when Sean pulls his car up beside him and sits next to him. Sean asks Jimmy if he's seen Dave, because he's wanted for questioning in a murder. It turns out that this murder, involved Dave discovering a pedophile abusing a kid in a car and killed him.