Mystic River, Question 1

The innocent character in the film Mystic River is Brendan Harris. The events in the film lead the audience to believe that either Brendan or Dave murdered Katie. During the investigation of Katie’s murder, Brendan is interrogated by law enforcement because of the fact that he is Katie’s boyfriend and Ray Harris’ son. Jimmy’s dislike for Ray Harris causes Brendan to be interrogated, due to the fact that he is related to him. The audience later discovers that it was not Brendan who is responsible for Katie’s murder, but his younger brother. Brendan was clearly emotional and distraught, yelling “I loved her!” as he was being subjected to the stressful interrogation. He is the innocent character because he did love Katie and expressed that he would never do such a thing to the girl that he loved.

Dave is the character who is deserving of forgiveness in this film. He was the one who ultimately suffered in the film. Throughout the investigation of Katie’s murder, the evidence pointed to Dave being the one responsible of killing her. Even Celeste, who is Dave’s own wife, was convinced that he had done it. Jimmy ends up believing that his friend is responsible for his daughter’s death and decides to take matters into his own hands, as he sought revenge on the person who took his daughter away from him. Although Dave was killed by Jimmy at the end of the film, he was the character who was deserving of forgiveness from Jimmy. He was just a culprit of the crime because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he ended up suffering, metaphorically and literally, because of Jimmy’s anger and desire for revenge. Jimmy allowed his anger to get the best of him and because of that, Dave had to die.