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| Genre: | Thriller |
| Year: | 2002 |
| Rating: | R |
| Length: | 1 Hour 50 Minutes |
| Cast: | Clint Eastwood, Clint Eastwood, Jeff Daniels, Anjelica Huston |
As both an actor and a director, Clint Eastwood gets better as he gets older, and this suspenseful thriller provides the septuagenarian star with one of his most engrossing roles to date. He portrays Terry McCaleb, an FBI agent forced into retirement by the near-fatal heart attack he suffered while chasing a notorious serial killer. Saved by a last-minute heart transplant, a still-ailing Terry is asked by Graciella Rivers (Wanda De Jesus) to investigate the murder of her sister -- whose heart now beats in his chest. The Michael Connelly novel that screenwriter Brian Helgeland has adapted supplies the director-star with an interesting dilemma that Eastwood exploits for maximum dramatic effect. The search for the woman's murderer leads Terry back to the serial killer whose pursuit nearly cost him his life. Eastwood plays the former G-man as weak, tired, and feverish, constantly pressing a hand to his scarred chest while brushing off admonitions to relax. The character is continually conscious of his own mortality, yet driven by both his duty as a lawman and his obligation to the dead woman who gave him a second chance at life. As the donor's sister, De Jesus is subtle yet strong; she's not a dewy-eyed ing‚nue or a voluptuous sex kitten, but rather a mature woman who gradually develops affection for the ailing ex-agent. Jeff Daniels scores solidly as the amiable layabout who acts as Terry's chauffeur -- and who figures prominently in the film's exciting denouement. Understated and even elegiac in tone, Blood Work puts a different spin on familiar melodramatic plot conventions, and it has an emotional resonance that's absent from most thrillers -- which makes it, arguably, Eastwood's finest film since Unforgiven. The DVD sports a making-of featurette and interviews with Eastwood and other cast members. Ed Hulse
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