Dave, Sean and Jimmy were childhood buddies, but a shocking turn of events leaves one of them emotionally ravaged and a mixture of guilt and confusion sees the three boys drift apart. When Jimmy's teenage daughter is murdered, Sean, now a cop, is assigned to the case and the deeper he delves the more suspect his old friend Dave begins to look. Mystic River is as much a study of damaged lives and the grief of loss as it is a thriller; taught, hard edged and emotional, the performances are uniformly excellent and it is this, rather than the story itself, that ultimately carries the film's power.