Since his undoubted masterpiece Unforgiven Clint Eastwood's directorial career has been disappointingly uneven, with the likes of Space Cowboys and Blood Work indicating that he might be a spent force. This was a welcome return to form - an ambitious, well-crafted adult drama featuring sterling performances from an excellent cast that only just misses greatness by a whisker. Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon play childhood friends whose lives are shattered when Penn's daughter is brutally murdered, an event that forces them to confront a horrific episode from their own shared past. Eastwood directs with crisp efficiency, but Brian Helgeland's screenplay somehow fails to convince, emerging as a sequence of well-written individual scenes rather than an integrated whole, while the plot relies too much on coincidence. Judged to the highest standards, this is a flawed piece of work, but it still ranks as must-see, grown-up cinema.

The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.