TRUE CRIME
** 1/2 (out of 4) - an enjoyable movie
Release Date: March 19, 1999 Starring: Clint Eastwood, James Woods, Denis Leary, Isaiah Washington, Diane Venora, Sydney Poitier, Mary McCormack Directed by: Clint Eastwood Distributed by: Warner Brothers MPAA Rating: R (language, some violence) URL: http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio/reviews/1999/truecrime.htm
Clint Eastwood never changes. He does not age in a linear fashion, as most men do, but instead on some radical quadratic curve. On the screen, he's always been and always will be a dog. Cultivating a rough-on-the-edges, heart-of-gold personality, he knows no other ground. And this recycled demeanor is only the beginning of an atmosphere of déjà vu that surrounds Eastwood's latest crime drama, TRUE CRIME.
TRUE CRIME is a mystery of sorts, and its primary setting is the death row cellblock of San Quentin. This is familiar ground for most viewers, as Hollywood cameras have been in and out of prisons on countless occasions. John Grisham films in particular are regular introspectives into the lives of the men and women on both sides of the bars. The mystery surrounds a wrongfully convicted man and a race against his midnight execution date, which is another familiar story for movie watchers. Toss in the typical character finds of the washed-up ex-drunk, the boss looking for an excuse to can him, the wife looking for an excuse to leave him, and the occasional companion who still wants to trust him, and TRUE CRIME is looking like a painfully familiar movie.
Specifically, Eastwood gives us, step-by-step, the final day of Frank Beachum (Isaiah Washington). Beachum has been convicted in the shooting death of a convenience store clerk; Steve Everett (Eastwood), a reporter assigned to the incident only in the last twenty-four hours, smells something wrong and decides to investigate. Everett is famous for his "hunches," and his boss (Denis Leary) warns him several times not to go looking for anything but a simple human interest sidebar story. Nevertheless, Everett starts his own investigation, if only to save his own career.
In the end, however, it's Eastwood's adventurous direction that saves this movie from being a case study in recycled film. The ancient entertainer is easily more skilled behind the camera now than he is in front of it, and once past his seedy character stereotype his fluent direction is easily visible. Although the movie is a bit longish, Eastwood has a very determined style of filmmaking, keeping the movie straight from start to finish. Plot twists are nicely contained, and the movie never once spins out of control.
The supports also help to keep this movie above water. James Woods and Denis Leary are outstanding, providing the movie's comic relief against Eastwood's boring stoicism. Isaiah Washington, as the condemned man of the lot, gives a very subdued performance here, which conveys a much greater sense of power.
The only flaws to be found in TRUE CRIME are its gravitation toward the familiar and its mass of forced emoting. Neither of these help what could have been a truly provocative motion picture, in the way that DEAD MAN WALKING was. Instead, it's just another mediocre product of only relative worth.
all contents © 1999 Craig Roush
-- Craig Roush kinnopio@execpc.com -- Kinnopio's Movie Reviews http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio
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