SUBMITTED BY Timbo

October 2, 2003 — The New York Film Festival, for the first time in its history, will open and close with movies from the same actor, namely Sean Penn, who appears in both Mystic River and 21 Grams.

"The thing about Sean Penn, for me just physically, he obviously has such an extraordinary physical energy that seems ready to burst out," [selection committe chairman Richard Pena] added. "That's one of the great things about him as an actor. You want to know more but you're a little bit scared about knowing too much, and I think in both films that works very well."

In Clint Eastwood's moody "Mystic River," Penn plays a South Boston ex-con whose teenage daughter is murdered. The killing reunites him with two estranged childhood friends  a police investigator (Kevin Bacon) and a suspect with a troubled past (Tim Robbins).

Read the full article at the link below. In the stunning "21 Grams," which ends the festival Oct. 19, Penn plays a professor who receives a transplanted heart from a man who died in a car accident, then falls for the crash victim's widow (Naomi Watts (news)). The latest film from Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (news) has the same jumbled narrative and raw, grainy visual style of his graphic 2001 film "Amores Perros."