Blood Work

While pursuing a suspect in a serial killer case, veteran FBI profiler Terry McCaleb (Eastwood) is felled by a heart attack. Two years later, having adjusted to retirement on his yacht, he's visited by Graciella Rivers (De Jesús), who's drawn to him partly because of his famed expertise in the fields of forensics and detection, partly because his survival was ensured by a heart transplant, where the organ was donated by Graciella's sister. Her murder in a convenience store, meanwhile, remains unsolved. McCaleb agrees to look into the case and, aided by his amiable beach bum neighbour Buddy (Daniels), finds unexpected links between past and present. No one would make great claims for Clint's cop vs serial killer yarn, and certainly McCaleb's relationship with Graciella is a sad, if relatively minor misjudgment. The final solution to the mystery, too, is no great surprise, though the combination of the performances and Brian Helgeland's twisting script (from the novel by Michael Connelly) keep us doubting our intuitions. And typically for Eastwood, there are modest touches to savour.