Blood Work (August 9/02)
Clint Eastwood has been cranking out thriller after thriller over the last few years (True Crime and Absolute Power), and while he'll never be credited with reinventing the genre, he does know what it takes to create an effectively suspenseful and involving storyline.
Eastwood stars as Terry McCaleb, a cop who, as the movie opens, is working a particularly brutal case involving a serial killer. This psychopath likes toying with McCaleb, going so far as to leave him bloody notes at crime scenes. It's at one such crime scene that McCaleb spots a suspicious looking man hanging around; not surprisingly, a chase ensues. McCaleb suffers a heart attack, though, and two years later, he receives a heart transplant. Now retired, McCaleb spends his days tooling around on his houseboat, but that all changes when he receives an unexpected visit. McCaleb's heart, it turns out, came from a woman who was murdered during a robbery and her sister wants him to look into the unsolved crime. So, against his doctor's advice, McCaleb sets out to put together the pieces and solve the murder.
Though it'll never be compared with earlier Eastwood thrillers like In the Line of Fire, Blood Work is nonetheless an effective and surprising police drama. Eastwood the director likes to take his time in telling stories, and this is certainly no exception. The story unfolds at a pace that's probably more realistic when it comes to solving crimes. We watch as McCaleb investigates various clues, some leading nowhere. As he works his way towards revealing the identity of the killer, he begins to make some rather startling discoveries (even though he may be done with the past, the past sure isn't done with him). And while it's fairly easy to guess who the killer is (that beard is a fairly shoddy one), that in no way detracts from the enjoyability of the film.
Blood Work does, however, feature yet another romance between Eastwood and a much younger woman. And while it didn't bother me too much, the audience I saw the film with couldn't resist giggling and groaning. It would have made far more sense to pair Eastwood up with the character of his doctor, played by Angelica Houston. While even she isn't as old as he is, they are a lot closer in age than the woman he eventually winds up with. And the conclusion is so action packed, it doesn't really fit in with the laid-back pace of the rest of the film. Still, Blood Work is an effective and clearly old-school type thriller that should appeal to older audiences and those who are tired of super fast-paced summer flicks.
