"Mystic River deals with a kind of unimaginable pain," says Sean Penn. "I found myself drawing from the writing and the other actors. We spent a lot of time together, reading through the script and trying to find a kind of peace with the things that occur and the choices that are made. Our job was to make these impossibly painful situations dramatically understandable."

Jimmy's anchor throughout the tragedy is his love for his daughters and the strength of his fiercely devoted wife, whose loyalty to those closest to her knows no bounds. "Annabeth is tough; very, very tough," says Laura Linney of her character. "She's like a mother lion, very protective, with a huge sense of pride and entitlement. She's always on guard - she's got an 'I dare you' quality about her."

As Jimmy was serving time, his boyhood buddy Sean aligned with the other side of the law, becoming a Massachusetts State homicide detective. Increasingly alienated from humanity by the never-ending indiscriminate cruelty he sees in the course of his investigations, and separated from his wife except for her painful, silent phone calls, Sean has come to question the meaning of his efforts.

"As adults, all of these men have disconnected from one another," relates Kevin Bacon, who plays the conflicted cop. "Sean moved away and now he spends all of his time trying to solve homicides. His wife has left him, he's living alone and he has no friends - he's just walking through life like a zombie."

Sean's only remaining personal connection is with his partner Whitey. Laurence Fishburne plays the homicide detective, who serves as his partner's objective reality check. "Whitey is truly the outsider amongst all of these people," says Fishburne. "He doesn't have any familial or friendship connections."

"A big part of the job for Laurence and myself was to have a real kind of chemistry and complexity to our relationship," says Bacon, "as two dedicated cops trying to solve this murder, which, for Sean, brings him back into his old neighborhood and childhood friendships."

Fishburne stresses the partnership that is the underlying force in their success. "The way I would describe the characters is this: Sean Penn is married to Laura Linney, Tim Robbins is married to Marcia Gay Harden and I'm married to Kevin Bacon. The partnerships that cops have are really like marriages."

Sean has come a long way from the old neighborhood, where Jimmy and Dave chose to remain and raise their families. The three might have lived out the rest of their lives without reconnecting, but they are violently reunited by Katie's senseless murder. Sean is assigned to the case, and instantly faced with a ticking clock: Jimmy is obsessed with revenge, his rage at the murder of his daughter disguised by a cool, methodically succinct execution plan.

"The story is the most important aspect of the entire project," says Eastwood. "I don't like intrusions or distractions on the set, and I'll follow the script as closely as I can. I try to create a comfortable environment where the actors can do their best work and the film can be made in the most direct way possible."