True Crime (1999) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Clint Eastwood

Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Denis Leary, James Woods, Bernard Hill, Isiah Washington, Michael McKean, Diane Venora

To describe True Crime makes it sound like formula:  A washed-up reporter grabs for a last shot at redemption by preventing an innocent man from being executed at the 11th hour.    Eastwood, as star and director, turns the film into an exercise in human drama and ratcheted-up suspense.    How exactly does it feel to be a condemned man seeing his wife and daughter for the final time?    There is so much emotion and truth in these scenes that it sure feels like Eastwood has firsthand knowledge. Juxtaposed with these powerful scenes are a journalist procedural in which Steve Everett (Eastwood) believes a black man named Frank Beachum (Washington) due to be executed at midnight is innocent and gathers evidence to prevent the execution.

If only Beachum were Everett's only issue.    His affair with his editor's wife is discovered, his wife is about to leave him over the seemingly numerous infidelities in their marriage, he is warned off the story by his publisher, and he is teetering on the edge of sobriety after being on the wagon for two months.    Oh, and it's his day to take his daughter to the zoo.   True Crime is successfully able to juggle these points without seeming crowded or trying too hard to touch all the bases.    Everett is wounded and hardly a hero, but we root for him because he is pulling up his bootstraps to make one more run at doing the right thing.  

True Crime feels emotionally true as we follow Everett's hectic day.   We see him bascially run through the zoo with his daughter in order to avoid being late to lunch with a witness who said he saw Beachum kill a store clerk.    This tricky scene is well handled.    The witness is not a racist and sticks to his story despite all of Everett's best journalistic ploys, but there is an undercurrent of racism.   We see Steve's editor (Leary) giving him the evil eye all day, trying his best to control his hostility.     We meet the warden (Hill) and prison chaplain, who are preparing for the execution in adherence to their duties.    It's not pleasant, but it must be done.    We even hear radio news broadcasts explaining how exactly a lethal injection is administered.    Knowing Eastwood as we do, this information is not just superfluously delivered for no good reason.    It leads to an extraordinary payoff.

We have seen many films in which a lawyer/journalist/family member works tirelessly at the 11th hour to prevent an execution.    True Crime is the best of them, mostly because Eastwood took the time to make an old theme feel fresh and new.    It is also very emotionally draining.    Watch the scenes involving Beachum's last visit with his wife and daughter.    That is something I wouldn't wish on anyone.