BLOOD WORK
© 2002 Warner Bros.

Mania Grade: C+
Reviewed Format: Wide Theatrical Release
Rated: R
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Wanda De Jesus, Jeff Daniels, Anjelica Huston, Tina Lifford, Paul Rodriguez
Writer: Brian Helgeland, based on the novel by Michael Connelly
Director: Clint Eastwood
Distributor: Warner Bros.

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BLOOD WORK

As Clint Eastwood works on into his 72^nd year without any obvious loss of energy or commitment to the business of thrilling us, his creative efforts to stay in the game as a screen hero despite his advancing age have become one of the most fascinating elements if not the most fascinating element of his movies. In the decade since he effectively killed off the long-ailing western with 1992's UNFORGIVEN (nobody has been able to figure out what to do with the genre since), an ever more grizzled Eastwood has played a variety of protagonists tailored to an actor in his golden years, including a retirement-ready master thief in 1997's ABSOLUTE POWER, a long-overdue-to-retire reporter sleuth in 1999's TRUE CRIME and an astronaut brought out of retirement in 2000's SPACE COWBOYS.

Like SPACE COWBOYS, Eastwood's screen version of Michael Connelly's 1998 novel BLOOD WORK is to some extent about the star's age, as any thriller with a leading man in his eighth decade on Earth is likely to be. Connelly's ingenious premise an FBI man with a bad heart is given the transplanted ticker of a murdered woman, then asked to find the woman's killer is well-suited for Eastwood's purposes, though nearly doubling the age of Connelly's thirtysomething hero from the book changes some of the story's dynamics in ways that don't help it. In the end, though, it's not Eastwood's qualification for Medicare but his need to tie the plot up with a Hollywood-ized new conclusion that prevents BLOOD WORK from making the pulse quicken the way it should.

The director-star plays Terry McCaleb, a well-known FBI profiler who has a massive heart attack while trying to chase down his equally famous archenemy, a serial murderer known as the Code Killer (this being an Eastwood picture, McCaleb is able to squeeze off several shots even in mid-coronary!). Two years later, a now-retired McCaleb is puttering on his boat in San Pedro, Calif., thanks to the heart of a 32-year-old female donor he received a couple of months before. But his steady recovery from the transplant is interrupted when the donor's sister Graciela Rivers (Wanda De Jesus) shows up with a troubling request: She wants McCaleb to find the mystery man who murdered her sister during a liquor store holdup. Figuring he owes his life to the woman whose heart now beats in his chest, McCaleb agrees a decision that puts him at odds with his cardiologist (Anjelica Huston), who rightly points out that the stress of the investigation could kill him as his body strains to accept his new pump.

The fragility

Clint Eastwood stars in and directed BLOOD WORK.

© 2002 Warner Bros.

Equally damaging to the adaptation is the decision to add a final twist that's a little too cute for its own good, seriously undermining believability and leaving us with a standard movie villain whose motivation for doing what has been done is mushy at best. A certain cast member gets to have some fun hamming things up in the end, but here's one fan of the genre who preferred the simpler, more natural conclusion of the novel.

Working against the romantic subplot that develops between McCaleb and Graciela is the lack of chemistry between Eastwood and De Jesus, whose hard-nosed intensity doesn't penetrate the leading man's tough-guy armor to any noticeable degree. Eastwood's trademark laconic gunfighter act typically requires a livelier co-star to bounce off him, and he has far more compelling interactions with a sassy L.A. County Sheriff deputy pal played by Tina Lifford and a loudmouth L.A.P.D. detective played by comedian Paul Rodriguez. The adaptable Jeff Daniels is also well-cast as a boat bum friend McCaleb hires as his driver/comedy relief sidekick.

Overall, BLOOD WORK benefits from the lean, unpretentious style and storytelling economy we've come to expect from the fast-working Eastwood, who has directed seven films in the 10 years since UNFORGIVEN who aside from Woody Allen knocks 'em out that fast in the A-list world? In the end, though, Connelly's clever twists and turns serve Eastwood's purposes better than Eastwood serves BLOOD WORK, and we're left to wonder how scary and emotionally engaging the film might have been if it weren't... well, an Eastwood film.