When a journalist is killed in a car crash, a veteran colleague (Clint Eastwood) is assigned to her story; she was covering the upcoming execution of a man (Washington) who might be wrongly convicted. The first screen adaptation of an Andrew Klavan novel was a commercial failure and not one of Eastwood’s sharpest films. His philandering, alcoholic character’s messy life is effectively contrasted with the wholesome attitude of Isaiah Washington’s death row convict. But the movie never goes in a compelling direction and the ending is too clichéd.
1999-U.S. 127 min. Color. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Novel: Andrew Klavan. Cast: Clint Eastwood (Steve Everett), Isaiah Washington (Frank Louis Beechum), Denis Leary (Bob Findley), LisaGay Hamilton, James Woods, Bernard Hill… Michael McKean, Michael Jeter, Mary McCormack, Sydney Poitier, Frances Fisher, Lucy Liu.
Trivia: Eastwood’s daughter in the film is played by his real-life daughter Francesca; her mother is Frances Fisher who also appears in the film, along with Dina Eastwood, Clint’s then-wife.
