Steve Everett (Clint Eastwood) is a womanizing married recovering alcoholic. He returns to his journalist job at Oakland Tribune after rehab. A young reporter dies in an accident and he assigned her interview with death row inmate Frank Beechum (Isaiah Washington). Beechum was a troubled youth until he became born-again and married to Bonnie (LisaGay Hamilton). He's scheduled to be executed in a few hours for the murder of a pregnant store clerk but Everett starts to wonder about his guilt.
There is a functional investigative crime mystery in this movie although the plot isn't very surprising. Clint Eastwood has filled it with too much uninteresting filler. Some of it is really cheesy. I think he wants Reverend Shillerman to be comic relief which really doesn't work. The most annoying is the Hollywood high speed chase to end the investigation. It's utterly ridiculous. Maybe he could call the governor or the prison or the wife. It's a bad attempt to make it artificially exciting.
There is a functional investigative crime mystery in this movie although the plot isn't very surprising. Clint Eastwood has filled it with too much uninteresting filler. Some of it is really cheesy. I think he wants Reverend Shillerman to be comic relief which really doesn't work. The most annoying is the Hollywood high speed chase to end the investigation. It's utterly ridiculous. Maybe he could call the governor or the prison or the wife. It's a bad attempt to make it artificially exciting.