# True Crime (1999)

### reviewed by
Jamey Hughton

    TRUE CRIME
    ***1/2 (out of five stars)
    A review by Jamey Hughton

    Starring-Clint Eastwood, Isaiah Washington,
    Denis Leary and James Woods
    Director-Clint Eastwood
    Rated-14A
    Released March 1999
    Warner Bros.

MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton: http://welcome.to/movieviews

Veteran actor Clint Eastwood has never looked as grizzled as he does in True Crime, his latest directorial effort. When Steve Everett (his newest character) gets angry at someone, he glares them down with those famous Dirty Harry eyes, furrows his brow and frowns like a grizzly bear who's just lost his cubs. Eastwood has played some particularly despicable characters in his time, but Everett could just take the cake.

He gets my vote, at least, partly because `Ev' is a drunken affair-a-week womanizer who has many relationship problems, very few of which are with his wife (Diane Venora). When his colleague at the Oakland Tribune is in an ugly car wreck and dies, Everett must take over for her at a vital interview session. The interview is with Frank Beacham (Isaiah Washington), a death-row inmate set to die at midnight for the murder of a pregnant convenience store clerk. Eastwood furrows his brow.

As Everett gradually finds information, he realizes that Beacham could very well be innocent. He interviews a key witness (Michael Jeter), who claims that he burst in the door at Pocum's Foods because his car had overheated, only to see Beacham standing over the dead woman's body, blood on his suspenders, gun in hand. But Everett protests: how could he have seen the gun, which was lowered by his side, with the potato chip rack in front of him? Jeter doesn't know what he's talking about. Eastwood furrows his brow.

Crinkled expressions and all, Clint is the centre of energy of True Crime. The film is by no means a standard action/suspense yarn, but a thoughtful human story in which the characters come before the shoot-outs. Isaiah Washington has a break-out performance as Frank Beacham, and scenes with him and his weary wife (Lisa Gay Hamilton) are truly heartfelt moments. But the best scenes are ones that feature Eastwood duking it out with those in authority over him. Denis Leary, as Everett's editor and boss, has more than a few memorable moments of restrained anger (you see, Ev is sleeping with his wife). But hands down, the most enjoyable segments of the film are when James Woods is on camera. Playing the big boss Alan Mann, Woods and Eastwood create amusing chemistry and laugh-out-loud punchlines.

When True Crime opts for a high-speed chase to the Governer's house at the finale, the quality of film-making takes an abrupt nosedive. Eastwood was so successful with colorful character portraits that he didn't need to switch lanes. True Crime is a tension-building, intriguing drama showcase for the talented director and star. This is a road block he could have easily dismissed (I furrow my brow). ...........................

MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton: http://welcome.to/movieviews

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews