Clint Eastwood’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s MYSTIC RIVER opened in select cities yesterday and received more stellar reviews. Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times said, “‘Mystic River’ is a major American motion picture, an overpowering piece of work that involves some of the most basic human emotions: love, hate, fear, revenge, despair.” In The New Yorker, David Denby wrote, “Clint Eastwood has directed good movies in the past…but he has never directed anything that haunts one’s dreams the way ‘Mystic River’ does. This extraordinary film [is] an outburst of tragic realism and grief…” And Stephanie Zacharek wrote in Salon.com, “‘Mystic River’ is hard-boiled beyond toughness: It’s so tender the skin falls away from the bone. It’s Eastwood’s most soulful, and most organic, movie.”

Continuing the near-universal praise “Mystic River” garnered at Cannes, A.O. Scott says that the film, based on Dennis Lehane’s novel and directed by Clint Eastwood, is “the rare American movie that aspires to — and achieves — the full weight and darkness of tragedy.” Scott also lauded the film, which opens the New York Film Festival tonight, for the acting. He was especially nice to Sean Penn, who plays Jimmy Markum. Scott says: “Sean Penn…is almost beyond praise. Jimmy Markum is not only one of the best performances of the year, but also one of the definitive pieces of screen acting in the last half-century, the culmination of a realist tradition that began in the old Actor’s Studio and begat Brando, Dean, Pacino and De Niro.” Congratulations Sean! Congratulations Clint! Congratulations Dennis! Read the whole review here. And then, buy your tickets.