QWhy didn't Dave just show Jimmy the body?
AThis question has raised considerable discussion. Most viewers point out that Dave was drunk and wasn't thinking fast. Others feel that Dave wasn't certain the pedophile was dead or that his body was still there behind McGill's. It is also pointed out that Jimmy was in anguish over Katie's murder. The Savage brothers had convinced him that Dave was guilty (even though Dave kept trying to convince Jimmy that he killed a pedophile, not Katie). When Jimmy told Dave that he would kill him if he didn't confess to killing Katie, Dave saw that as a way to escape with his life, so he confessed to a crime that he didn't commit. Unfortunately, Jimmy went back on his word.
QAny recommendations for other movies similar to "Mystic River"?
AOne movie that viewers have mentioned as being similar to Mystic River is Summer of Sam (1999), in which a punk rocker is almost beaten to death when his "friends" conclude that he must be the serial killer known as "Son of Sam", who is terrorizing their section of the Bronx. Thematically very similar is Gone Baby Gone, another crime story set in Boston, also by writer Dennis Lehane.
QWhat does Dave being raped as a child have to do with the plot of the movie?
AAt the beginning of the movie, Dave, Jimmy, and Sean were depicted as young boys playing in the street. A policeman comes along and takes Dave away with him. The "policeman" is actually a pedophile. Days later, when Dave finally escapes, he is marked by everyone in the neighborhood as "damaged goods." After that, it becomes easy to blame Dave for doing criminal things to others, based on the erroneous assumption that "what goes around comes around." Dave never got counseling to cope with the event; he hasn't even told his wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden). On the night of the murder, Dave comes home with a bloodied hand and a knife wound to his chest. He comes up with a story about a mugger. Celeste becomes suspicious when she cannot find any mention of a wounded mugger in the newspapers. This becomes worse when she hears Dave give different statements as to the cause of his hand injury. His increasing mental instability starts to frighten her to the point where she shares her suspicions with Jimmy, which ultimately leads to Dave being fingered in Katie's death.
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