"IS THAT MY DAUGHTER IN THERE!?!?!" Why an Oscar is not enough recognition for Sean Penn

In 2003 Sean Penn graced the screen as Jimmy Markum in Clint Eastwood’s adaptation of Mystic River. Behind Eastwoods direction and heavyweight cast that includes Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburn it was clear from the beginning that this movie had the potential to clean house come Oscar season. With five nominations and two wins, Including the aforementioned Penn for best actor, it would easy to say that this movie lived up to its full potential, buy the DVD, deem it as a forever rewatchable classic and move on. But 17 years later I’m here to tell you - hold your fucking horses. I will be the first to admit, I was not on the hype train from the beginning as my first viewing was just this last weekend. I was aware of the hype and the lore that it is held up in, in terms of acting and the story structure of the devious plot. I think I had even stumbled upon a YouTube video the famous scene of Jimmy exploding at the realization of his first daughter’s death. It’s a well-known scene in the film world. Honestly it’s the reason I wanted to watch the movie and it’s the reason I held back for so many years. I had enjoyed the YouTube acting mashups featuring it and knowing the hype I felt that there was a good chance this scene would be the “needle” in the proverbial haystack of what is an overdone Eastwood drama of mediocrity. This could not have been further from the truth. I knew “the scene” was happening and I still had multiple fits of overwhelming goosebumps, shaking me to my core. Tears filled my eyes as a smile crossed my face. An introspective laugh at how much a move- no one scene- could impact me emotionally. I don’t have children and even I could empathize with Penn for losing a daughter and the distraught rage that would accompany a tragedy of that nature. She was 19 years old. Wow. All I could come away with after the scene was I wish my own dad had that deep of an ingrained, innate, unconditional love for me. All of those thoughts, feelings, and emotions from a 5-minute scene in the exposition of the movie. Jesus Christ. It would have been such an easy scene for him to over-act but he absolutely nails it. The thing is that even on the set of the shooting day, I’m sure every single person involved knew before the started that this was the Oscar scene. The way it’s written and the gravity of the situation it’s clear this is the scene they play when the conversation happens. Even the fucking lunch caterers knew this was the “it” scene and he still knocked it out of the fucking park. The depths to it deserve a deeper dive.

The Build-Up: Anyone who has seen the trailer or the videos floating around on YouTube knows when we see the initial crime scene that, yes it is Jimmy’s daughter who was murdered. This gives us information that Jimmy doesn’t know but you can still see his sense of worry about the situation as things progress.

The Escalation:

After confirming it is his daughters car at the crime scene Jimmy is now starting to think the worst but he, a rational man, is not jumping to conclusions. He calmly takes things into his own hands and directs the Savage brothers to get around the cops. He tells Sean to find his daughter out of necessity because he needs her to be alive. He is still very composed but you can see as the situation escalates that he does not want to accept what has now become probably.

The Explosion: In a very somber moment Sean confirms it is Jimmy’s daughter. This moment is sad yet beautiful and the way it preludes the explosion to come creates a nice tension that Sean Penn uses perfectly. As he is ripping through cops and yelling his full force is slowly unleashed. He knows the

answer to the question he is exclaiming over and over again. He is practically foaming at the mouth as upwards of 10 cops try and struggle to contain him. In a way they mirror the limitations of the situation. A father fighting at all costs against an insurmountable force to protect his daughter. In this case however the insurmountable force is death in that there is nothing he can do for her at this point, even knowing that he still fights uncontrollable to get to her.

The scene is absolutely chilling all the way to the overhead crane shot of Sean at the bottom of a dogpile screaming in emotional agony. Another factor that makes the performance by Penn all the more impressive is the development of his relationship with Katie played by Emmy Rossum. The two shared one scene together and that’s all it took for the deep-seated love of Jimmy to be solidified. I honestly thought the scene would take place much later in the story, giving the audience a chance to know the characters as two people before one is tragically removed. Nope. Once again all Sean Penn needs is two minutes and he’ll get you there. He’s like Tom Brady in that no matter how much time you give him, he’ll say thank you and do what needs to be done. No blame-shifting , just blue-collar as hell. Some of the credit obviously goes to the directing and editing but Penn is the anchor here. Even if that was the extent of his character I would have been happy. We’d give him the Deion Waiters award for biggest heat check and all would end well. But once again he delivers above expectations. His other scenes when he fights to keep his masculine persona through the death of his daughter are so powerful. I cannot list how many men I know who he embodies that would struggle to save face in this situation. Jimmy says it best on the porch, “I just want to cry”. Really just unbelievable stuff. This brings me to the title of this blog post. An Oscar for Best Actor really just isn’t enough. This performance was transcending what we humans classify as acting. It was otherworldly, it was divine. I feel like I owe him so much more than the 3.99 I paid to rent this movie. He gave us so much and what? In return we gave him an Oscar? Kevin Spacy has one of those too and he’s a piece of shit, especially considering he won for American Beauty. Sean Penn isn’t the first actor to deserve more than the Oscar win and he won’t be that last. My question is when will we be ready to give it to him?

Comments