Tightrope

Tightrope keeps its audience on the edge of their seats with a stylishly presented Eastwood mystery that unfolds in a suspenseful neo-noir atmosphere.

should have been better with this cast.

How is this not super entertaining? 'Tightrope' should have all the ingredients to make the viewer be on the edge of their seat, and yet I really didn't care much for it. Clint Eastwood, who apparently took over unofficially as director from Richard Tuggle during filming, gives a solid performance and the bond with his character's children is cute. However, the story just didn't do anything for me. It's not particularly unnerving, despite a dark on paper story, and it's rather predictable - the villain... well, the villain I've already forgotten about and I only finished watching about an hour ago. Not terrible, but not good.

Between 2.5 and 3 stars. It has the good ingredients for a good thriller, but it is not very subtle and sometimes focuses too much in sex and too little in the mistery.

_Tightrope_ is a tawdry sex thriller taking place in New Orleans, where detective Block (Clint Eastwood) is tracking a serial rapist / murderer whose victims are the same S & M prostitutes that Block himself routinely gets involved with---as a customer. But Block is no "bad lieutenant." He's a divorced dad who dotes on his two young daughters. He has several dogs, and he's just generally a good guy. So his sexual deviance is an anomaly, and it's not explained. Did it cause his wife to leave him? Of is it his response to that divorce? The latter is implied but not elaborated on. The film is mostly shot at night, so a lot of the scenes are dark and hard on the eyes. We are exposed to the underbelly of the Crescent City----the brothels and S & M clubs. There's a lot of jazz on the soundtrack (provided by Lennie Niehaus, who did the music for Eastwood's Charlie Parker biopic _Bird_. The police procedural aspect of the story moves slowly. The most interesting thing is Block's relationship with a woman who runs a rape crisis center, played by Genevieve Bujold. Eastwood has become such a respected icon as a director and an actor that it's strange to see him in such a sleazy movie, even sleazier than the Dirty Harry films of the 1970s. But _Tightrope_ was made was the 80's, when sleaze escalated to the max in Hollywood. DePalma and Lynch were hitting it big, and Alan Parker's despicable _Angel Heart_ was a huge success. Cultural rebellion against the Reagan era? Possibly. In one scene in a warehouse full of Mardi Gras paraphernalia, the camera briefly pans across a Reagan mask. The film makes good use of its setting, with lots of scenes on Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, and the climactic scene takes place in one of the city's famous above ground cemeteries. It's suspenseful, for sure, but you'll cringe a lot. I like Eastwood a lot better in his later films. As he got older, he got more thoughtful and decent. By the way, if you've been to New Orleans, this film might make you nostalgic for Dixie Beer.

Tightrope is a heavy handed, substandard Clint Eastwood film. Poor supporting cast. Poor musical score. Poor cinematography. Most of the scenes were shot at night, so the audience must spend most of their time in front of a mostly dark screen. Clint Eastwood plays a detective in New Orleans on the case of a seral killer who's haunt is the local sex scene. Coincidentally, it is also where Clint's character likes to hang out. He is no Dirty Harry here, but rather more like the Jazz DJ in 'Play Misty for Me' with a badge. The female lead is a Canadian actress who sounds Hispanic, looks French, and acts like Pia Zadora. The professional movie critics liked this movie; the amateur audience reviewers generally did not. Chalk up a victory for the amateurs. Tightrope is truly a forgettable movie.

It's a fairly run-of-the-mill Eastwood action flick, but being that he's awesome... It's actually a pretty solid, gritty neo-noir.

Run of the mill for Eastwood.

Tightrope doesn't have the speed or style of let's say Dirty Harry. But it was interesting to see the darker side of Clint Eastwood

same deal over and over again