Review of True Crime (1999) by Kenneth M — 02 Sep 2011

Based on Andrew Klavan's 1997 novel of the same name, Clint Eastwood chose this as his 21st film as director, he was still licking his wounds after the failure of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), and this was also a big flop.

It would be a few years before he got himself back on his feet with success. True Crime has journalist Steve Everett (Eastwood) recovering from alcoholism being assigned a case regarding the last day of the life of Frank Beechum (Isaiah Washington), who is to be executed at midnight for the murder of a pregnant shop assistant 6 years prior, all appeals against this have failed and it looks as if Frank is guilty as hell.

However, Steve's recently deceased colleague Michelle Ziegler (Mary McCormack) had evidence that suggests that Frank might just be innocent of the crimes. So, with time running out, Steve decides to check out Michelle's theories, and discovers flaws in the original investigation.

But, he has to juggle all this with his broken home life and he only has until midnight to solve the case or Frank will be executed. It's a by the numbers thriller, but some of it is quite cheesy, not helped by some maukish, annoying child-acting too.

But, this has support from Denis Leary, James Woods and Bernard Hill. It would only get worse for Clint before it got better.