"Pessimystic" River

Eastwood outdoes himself in this film. He weaves many complicated story lines together into this masterpiece. With the use of flashbacks and low key lighting he sets the mood for the sadness that progressively builds as the story unfolds. The plot is centered around three childhood friends, Jimmy Sean and Dave, who have grown apart in recent years due to one traumatic event in their past when Dave was abducted by pedophiles. Now their lives once again are intertwined as the the circumstances of the death of Jimmy's daughter lead them to look to each other in search of answers.
Both Jimmy and Sean play classic Eastwood characters in that they will do what ever it takes to fix things. Jimmy who was a main man in the Savage Brothers gang and since cleaned up his life reverts back to his old ways in order to solve his daughter's murder. Much like Eastwood's character in Unforgiven reverts back to his old ways at the end for one last killing. And the character of Sean is a cop who does what must be done to bring to the surface the real truth about the events. Though Eastwood would usually be playing one of the more bad ass roles in his movies he is far to old to play these characters so he only directs this movie.
Another trend that i have noticed in Eastwood's movies are characters who come from broken families. In Million Dollar Baby the the main character grows up without a father. In Grand Turino the Asian kid also has no father to look after him. And in this movie we find that the dead girl's boyfriend grows up without a father. All these characters who play pivotal roles in the plot come from broken pasts.
Once again the ending of the movie leaves me depressed andwondering why we picked Eastwood as our director. But then again the movie was well made and sends a powerful message and that can't be overlooked so it wasn't bad. I'm going to watch some happy movies before I watch another Eastwood movie that's for sure.