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Special Features
- "Making Blood Work"
- A conversation in Spanish with actors Clint Eastwood, Wanda De Jesus, and Paul Rodriguiz (with subtitles)
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In BLOOD WORK, Clint plays Terry McCaleb, a high profile FBI agent who suffers a severe heart attack while chasing (on foot) a vicious serial killer who leaves taunting messages for McCaleb at the crime scene. Terry finds that climbing over fences just isn't as easy at is used to be, but then a Clint Eastwood character in the old days would've just stood back and shot the perp down at long range with his .44 Magnum. Oh, well. In any case, it's now two years later and Terry is just off a heart transplant and retired to his boat. Graciella (Wanda De Jesus) shows up to request that McCaleb get back in harness to investigate the death of her sister, who was murdered in a convenience store holdup. McCaleb at first demurs, but then has a change of heart, so to speak, when he learns that the dead woman was the donor of his new ticker.
The best part of BLOOD WORK, also directed and produced by Eastwood, is watching Clint depict the aging, debilitated and physically vulnerable McCabe, who can perhaps be viewed as a composite of all the other heroes played by Clint over the decades, only older. Eastwood, possibly mindful of his own mortality, is perhaps acknowledging time's inexorable march through Terry's persona. Beyond that, the film had its uneven moments. Paul Rodriguez plays Detective Arrango, a Latino LAPD cop so gratuitously buffoonish and unpleasant that I'm surprised the Brotherhood of Latino Law Enforcement Officers isn't suing. Anjelica Huston overacts her role as McCabe's cardiologist, Dr. Bonnie Fox, who's snappishly unsympathetic to Terry's desire to see justice done for the woman whose heart keeps him alive. Moreover, McCabe early on hypothesizes an unknown circumstantial link between Graciela's sister and another man murdered by (apparently) the same killer. Though Terry is proven right, of course, the evidence for this premature conclusion was decidedly unclear to this viewer at the time. Additionally, it was never explained how the killer got access to crucial blood type records, and this was a major loose end in my book since such data isn't in the public domain. On the other hand, Jeff Daniels does a swell job as Buddy, McCabe's neighbor in the next boat slip. Buddy, an affable but unemployed and self-professed loser, supplements monetary support from his father by acting as Terry's driver during the latter's investigations.
BLOOD WORK has a plot gimmick that eventually leads to a satisfying ending involving McCabe, Graciella and the Bad Guy. Despite its flaws, I liked this film a lot simply because Eastwood will always be my all-time favorite cinematic Tough Guy.
Eastwood is ex-FBI profiler Terry McCareb, now retired after one bloody case of murder. Recovered from severe heart attack which hit him during the invetigation, he gets an operation. Now a heart transplant recepient, Terry is advised to live quitely by his doctor Anjelica Huston. But an unexpected visitor comes to him, asking him to help her; her sister was murdered at a grocery shop, and she says she has a good reason to ask Terry to do what she needs.
Back in former business, Terry starts his own search for the killer, and the film displays some actions (including shootings) and activities of Terry with his sidekick Jeff Daniels ("Speed" and "Dumb and Dumber"), but it is Eastwood whom we would watch with certain amount of respect and feeling of "wow". In fact, even though he was born in 1930, he still is in good shape, with his tough and cool images all around. You may say this guy Terry is just an elder version of Harry, and you're right. But when Eastwood does it, he does it better than anyone, blending his machismo with some sort of resignation and sadness which only those veterans can exude.
Once I heard that Eastwood behind the carema never shouts or yells when shooting -- no "Action!" no "Cut!" -- but speaks it quietly (and in Italian too). Probably so. The pace of the film is always assured, showing that director Eastwood perfectly comprehends his subject. No flashy camera work is there; you see his assured touch of direction, which can be neither too fast nor too slow. Like his previous "Space Cowboys", "Blood Work" never runs, but is always moving.
You might find the script of Brian Helgeland ("LA Confidential" "Knight's Tale" and others) a little too transparent, but it keeps you interested even though some of you might detect the truth half on the way. But as I said, it is the film of Clint Eastwood who, as you know, loves jazz music. And like jazz, the film may look too slow and quiet for younger audiences as it goes with leisured pace. But that is his style, and without style there is no cool.
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