Maaaaaan, we sure haven't heard much on this film so far, so let's begin to change that with Pickebicke here... Noone is ever aware of them small sentient fictional mice... They always come through... Here ya go
Harry,
Pickebicke here, and while I'm just a fictional mouse (and a registered trademark of Sanrio) sometimes I get lucky and get into some industry screenings. Now, in a summer of Star Wars, Kubrick and even that awesome-looking Wachowski Brothers movie, a new Clint Eastwood movie looks to fall between the cracks. But don't you forget, even after a bunch of stinkers, he's still freakin' Clint.
Clint is as prolific as Woody Allen, and in his new flick "True Crime", he even beds a few women that have a couple of generation gaps between them and him. He plays a real SOB reporter, a drunk (supposedly sober), smokin, cursin, and sleepin around. His family life is in shambles, but his "nose for a story" leads him to a man on death row who may be innocent.
The basic plot outline is nothing too exciting; we've all seen Dead Man Walking, Primal Fear, whatever. But what Clint seems to be interested in is his character, a man who will do anything to set an innocent man free but won't take 20 minutes to be with his daughter. It's not out of a sense of justice, but out of selfishness, and it takes everyone around him to bring him some sense of hope for personal redemption. The best scenes involve his brushes with the managing editor, an even tougher SOB played by James Woods. Their verbal sparring show where Clint's character's heart is; he'd rather be a tough guy than be a husband and father.
The plot and its coincidences and cliches are somewhat unbelievable, but the characters are very real. Complain all you want about 23 year olds sleeping with 70 year olds; I say who WOULDN'T sleep with Clint? There are a lot of unhappy people in this movie; it's very interesting to see them working through their struggles in such an honest way. Anyone who likes Clint will be much happier here than with "Absolute Power" or his other recent works; it's a strong piece of work in a fluffy "true crime" package.
Later,
Pickebicke
