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"True Crime" is a fast-paced, enjoyable suspense film starring
Clint Eastwood as a haggard, disgruntled, old newspaper reporter.
Not the model citizen himself - he smokes in "no smoking" buildings,
cheats on his wife by sleeping with a coworker's wife, and does
some incredibly wild, half-tipsy driving- Eastwood has a thing
for attempting to get convicted criminals off the hook. (On
his last crusade, he tried- and failed - to get a rapist released.)
He feels that if he "follows his nose" on a story, he can't
go wrong. Of course, his nose gets a little off track when he
hits the bottle, but he has been sober of late.
Which is why he is so convinced that his nose is right when
he decides a convicted murderer is innocent. Too bad Eastwood
only gets "his nose" on the day that the "murderer" is scheduled
to be executed. Still, Eastwood won't let anything - including
traffic laws- stop him from ferreting out the truth and seeing
that justice is served.
Eastwood's character is rather interesting; unlike some movie
heroes, he has his flaws - quite a lot of them, as a matter
of fact. A film hero who isn't the Superman is something of
a novelty.
This film has a few flaws itself - I thought that one car chase
scene, in which Eastwood is desperately trying to shake the
cops, was terribly unrealistic. Eastwood, who has been drinking,
does a top-speed U-turn on the appropriately named Dead Man's
Curve - and, amazingly, he doesn't become the next dead man.
One scene this movie could have done without: Clint Eastwood
with his shirt off. I'm sorry, but he's just a little too old
for that. According to my mother, Eastwood was handsome in his
younger days, but he's not much to look at now - keep that shirt
on Clint!
His acting performance, however, was praiseworthy, and the other
actors were almost as terrific. All in all, "True Crime" was
a marvelously entertaining film.
My Rating: 3 stars
Rating : R
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