Was Mystic River all that and a bag of lightly-salted potato crisps?

Not quite.

It's good, don't get me wrong. It's great. There's the faintest, most subtle of subplots running through it with the women that is pure gold. But in the main story there are moments of very clumsy, clunky, rough-edges storytelling that probably wouldn't be so horribly noticable if the rest of the movie wasn't so smooth and brilliant.

So, yeah, excellence on film. But if it wins Best Film, I'm going to be very annoyed, and not just because I worship at the altar of Peter Jackson.