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Blood Work review
:. Director: Clint Eastwood
:. Starring: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Daniels
:. Running Time: 1:40
:. Year: 2002
:. Country: USA
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Eastwood's Blood Work is an old-fashioned, meticulous and slow-paced thriller that focuses on the characters and investigation rather than on cutthroat editing.
Clint Eastwood plays Terry McCaleb, a retired FBI profiler who has recently had a heart transplant. When the donor's sister asks him to investigate her violent death, McCaleb gets back to business and follows the path of a serial killer, though not without being slowed down by his condition.
Eastwood's latest films—Absolute Power, True Crime and Space Cowboys—were not satisfying and while it's no Unforgiven, Blood Work is a personal film that comes closer to darker pieces such as Tightrope. The movie is academic and voluntarily predictable, giving the audience a few extra paces that will allow them to follow McCaleb's investigative process and witness him solving the mystery à la Columbo.
There are recurrent themes in Blood Work. The last few years Eastwood—the director—has been trying to break the tough image of Eastwood—the actor. In Blood Work, he has a heart transplant, must swallow 13 pills a day and submit to regular check-ups. You also see him having an attack, getting his ass kicked and letting a few suspects get away, what would have never happened to Dirty Harry. While he certainly has fun with his own image and wants to leave some of his most memorable roles behind, despite being in his 70's he still looks like he could blow XXX's head clean off before he has time to put on his fur coat. There is also an emphasized presence of minorities in his films as well as women in positions of power, which contrasts greatly with usual Hollywood casting.
After a 30- year career, Eastwood does his own thing, without caring for trends or box office receipts. Blood Work is mainly for his fans and won't revolutionize cinema. But the fact that McCaleb isn't that far from Harry makes us want to erase the mediocre Last Pool from memory in order to close the Dirty Harry saga the way he closed westerns with Unforgiven.
Fred Thom
 Movie Reviews: 1998 - 2011
Movie Reviews: 2012 - present
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