TRUE CRIME
A movie review by Joe Barlow
(c) Copyright 1999
STARRING: Clint Eastwood, Isaiah Washington, James Woods,
Denis Leary
DIRECTOR: Clint Eastwood
WRITERS: Larry Gross, Paul Brickman and Stephen Schiff
(based on the novel by Andrew Klavan)
RATED: R
RELEASED: 1999
RATING: ** (out of a possible ****)
I'll admit that I had high hopes for "True Crime," which may partially explain the disappointment I feel after screening it. Andrew Klavan's novel intrigued me, and seemed an ideal choice for conversion to the big screen: it contains only a handful of major characters, a great deal of tension, a riveting storyline, and a number of thought-provoking questions about racism, guaranteed to stick in the reader's mind. Granted, it also includes lengthy passages of exposition that, while perfectly suited to a book, would only impede a cinematic adaptation. I knew the conversion would be a challenge for any screenwriter: he or she would have to be unafraid to prune Klavan's chatty prose down to something that could be reasonably covered in a two-hour film. Even while reading the book, I imagined how *I* might convert the novel into a screenplay: by keeping the emphasis on the mystery, jettisoning the exposition, and, above all, keeping things moving briskly.
Clint Eastwood's adaptation of this involving novel does not succeed in any of the above categories: rather than keeping the focus on the story as a whole, we are repeatedly detoured into the rather pathetic life of the story's protagonist, Steve Everett (played with immense weariness by Eastwood himself). Everett is a newspaper reporter assigned to cover the impending execution of Death Row convict Frank Beachum (Isaiah Washington), a black man accused of murdering a white convenience store clerk over a $96.00 debt. Beachum, however, has always claimed to be innocent, and something about his story leads Everett to think he may be telling the truth. Everett decides to investigate the case further, but time is not on his side: Beachum faces a lethal injection in less than twelve hours.
Sadly, Beachum is not the focus of the story, and that's part of the problem. I would've liked a better glimpse into the convict's mind as he sat waiting to be executed for a crime he claims he didn't commit. The few scenes we get of Beachum coming to terms with his fate (like when he tells his wife and daughter goodbye) are haunting. If only the tone had remained this honest and intimate, "True Crime" could've been one of the year's most touching and emotionally involving films; instead, we get far too many scenes of Everett annoying nearly everyone he comes into contact with as he bumbles through his investigation, culminating in two well-worn staples of detective movies: a car chase involving the hero and the police, and repeated close-ups of a clock on the wall, counting down the seconds until Something Significant happens. By focusing on these items, the screenwriters have sacrificed drama for cliche'.
Clint Eastwood is a fine director, but as is often the case when filmmakers star in the movies they're directing, he seems reluctant to cut any scene in which he appears, even if these scenes add nothing but length to the film. We already know the film is on a tight deadline, but the story is repeatedly placed on hold to explore irrelevant tangents involving Eastwood's character: his alcoholism, his failed marriage, his infidelities, his relationship with his daughter, his poor work environment, etc. I'm willing to bet that Eastwood the actor overruled Eastwood the director during the editing stages; why else would such a time-intensive story spend so much of its length exploring Everett's backstory, rather than the more time-critical issues at hand? On more than one occasion I wanted to reach into the screen, give Eastwood a firm shake, and urge him to get on with it already. In this film, he's not so much Clint Eastwood as Clint Deadwood.
"True Crime" is a thoroughly forgettable thriller that begins to fade from the brain immediately after the end credits roll. Why in the world anyone thought we needed to see this much of Steve Everett's life when the much more fascinating character of Frank Beachum is right there on the screen, practically begging for acknowledgement, is far behind me. As is so often the case, the most interesting components of this tale are rejected in favor of formula details. "True Crime" isn't just this movie's title: it's also my opinion of the way this material was handled.
E-Mail: jbarlow@earthling.net Joe Barlow on Film: http://www.ipass.net/~jbarlow/film.htm
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