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Mystic River

Date: Jan 21 2004

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

mature
theme

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

In the new movie Mystic River, Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn), Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins) and Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon) are childhood friends from Boston. When they were children, nothing much out of the ordinary ever happened, except for one major incident which drastically altered the course of each of their lives forever. Twenty-five years later, the three find themselves thrust back together by another tragic event – the death of Jimmy’s daughter. Now a cop, Sean is assigned to the case and he and his partner must solve the crime.
John and Zach both recently saw Mystic River. Listen in to their conversation to hear what they think about it.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

John

Zach

John: Dude, did you see Mystic River?

Zach: Yeah. I thought it was a great movie. What about you?

John: I thought it was awesome up until the end. I didn’t really understand why they did it that way. What’d you think?

Zach: You know, I can’t really remember the ending, to tell you the truth. Um, actually, no, I know, I remember what happened. I thought that they didn’t resolve all the stories, to some extent.

John: Yeah, and I couldn’t figure out where each character was at the end. I mean, I didn’t know who was in trouble and who wasn’t and it kind of left it… I think I was just missing something in general, so…

Zach: Kinda left you hangin’ there?

John: A little bit. Or at least, or if there was some message that I just didn’t see, that was being portrayed.

Zach: Well my girlfriend bought the novel that the movie was based on and apparently it goes into a lot more detail about all the characters’ past. So, it gets resolved. So, you should read it.

John: Oh, that’s a good idea. I’ll check that out.

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Discussion

Mystic River is being hailed by film critics and fans as one of the best movies of the year. It’s the favorite to win many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. Sean Penn, the actor who plays Jimmy, gives an amazing performance and I think he’ll win the Best Actor award.
Mystic River is an extraordinary film, but it’s also very heavy and dark. It’s definitely a movie for mature adults – not for children. If you enjoy movies with serious themes and ideas, you’ll love Mystic River.
See you at the movies!
Zach

Comments

Idriss

Morocco

i watched this movie and read its novel long time ago
it’s so cruel, masochistic, and contradictory story, and lacks logic
even Sci-fi imagination sometimes have more logic than the mystic river and alike movies.
it’s a stupid story, my preview.