Three old friends are brought together by a murder investigation: one is the investigator, one the father of the murdered girl, and one is the suspect...

And there is so much more to this movie than that...every character has shades and nuances, a history of his or her own...none of them are shallow or narrow, none of them are what they seem to be, and all of them have connections to each other.

Plus the three guys (as adults) are played by Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins...a truly amazing combination of talent.

Now, I have to say, this is a long one, well over two hours. Mr. Otter and I put off seeing it a couple of times (us being so incredibly popular and all, can't disappoint our public...) but finally made it on a Saturday afternoon, with high hopes and thrilled to pieces by only having to pay matinee prices.

And he just hated it. He was bored, thought the storyline was trite and the characters stupid, just really down on the whole thing.

Me? I was riveted...not only was I enjoying the movie and the characters, I didn't figure out who did it until 5 minutes before it became obvious...this is very very good, since I'm usually pretty adept at spotting the one person the filmmaker doesn't want you to think about...but I was so caught up in these characters and their lives, I just didn't have time to try.

So you decide. Who was right? Me or Mr. Otter? Let me know what you think.