Film Review: Blood Work (2002)
Clint Eastwood stands out among Hollywood stars of his generation by being undeterred by advanced age and willingness to direct and star in films in tenth decade of his life. While such vigour and enthusiasm can be commendable, it doesn’t mean that those films are likely to match the quality of his earlier works. That decline could have been noticed even two decades ago with films like 2002 thriller Blood Work.
The film, produced and directed by Eastwood, is based on the eponymous novel by Michael Connelly, prolific crime author whose work has, among other things, served as basis for popular TV series like Bosch and The Lincoln Lawyer. Eastwood again appears in the main role, this time as Terry McCaleb, FBI agent who tries to catch vicious serial killer. His efforts fail when he suffers heart attack. When he recovers, it is due to heart transplant, with his condition ending law enforcement career. Despite being retired and relying on his neighbour and friend Jasper “Buddy” Noone (played by Jeff Daniels) for transportation, he agrees to help Graciella Rivers (played by Wanda de Jesus) in finding her sister’s killer. Caleb feels obligated to her because he is carrying the murdered woman’s heart. His investigation, however, soon finds that the killing wasn’t the accident and that his old nemesis might have deliberately murdered woman and few other people only to allow Caleb to live and thus continue playing twisted cat and mouse game.
Script by Brian Helgeland is using an interesting concept which seems quite fitting for Clint Eastwood because the main character is burdened with the issues that come with Eastwood’s age. However, as soon as exposition ends and actual plot has to advance, Blood Work succumbs to all the worst cliches, including, those used in serial killer films, subgenre Eastwood had been involved before. Many of those cliches are quite annoying, including obligatory romantic subplot, and the identity of the killer won’t be much of surprise to anyone even remotely familiar to Hollywood conventions. Eastwood still has presence and shows a lot of experience while directing, but his efforts simply weren’t enough to rescue Blood Work from sinking into oblivion.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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