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Susan Granger's review of "TRUE CRIME" (Warner Bros.)
Clint Eastwood's an insightful director and an often underestimated actor but he needs a more believable story to work with than "True Crime" - along with a more appealing character to play. He's a cynical, amoral reporter on the Oakland "Tribune" who can't keep his pants zipped. In the first scene and in the final scene, he's hitting on 23 year-old girls. In between, he's wallowing in a muckraking melodrama about a noble black man (Isiah Washington) who's bravely facing execution on Death Row in San Quentin for killing a pregnant white convenience store clerk. The guy's obviously not guilty and Eastwood - who was given the story as a last-minute fill-in - is determined to prove his innocence within a 12-hour span to get a reprieve before the warden can administer the lethal injection. It's far-fetched but he finds exonerating evidence, plus a witness, that the cops, lawyers, and other reporters haven't unearthed over six years. Meanwhile, he's boffing the wife of the city editor (Dennis Leary) and bantering with the editor-in-chief (James Woods). Actually, the scenes in which Eastwood and Woods trade sardonic zingers are the best in the film. Several extraneous characters are just irritating - like a foul-mouthed panhandler and a pontificating prison minister. There are also the Eastwood family players - remember how he featured his daughter Alison as a singer in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"? This time, his former girl-friend, Frances Fisher, plays an attorney; his current wife, Dina Ruiz, is a TV reporter (since she is in real-life, it's not a stretch); and his love-child with Fisher cavorts as his daughter (she's adorable). On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "True Crime" is a trite, contrived, tedious 4. It's a crime of excess, filled with people with whom you'd never want to spend one hour, much less two.
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