Blood Work (film)

Blood Work is a 2002 American mystery thriller film starring and directed by Clint Eastwood, who also produced. It co-stars Jeff Daniels, Wanda De Jesús, and Anjelica Huston. It is based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Michael Connelly.

Eastwood won the Future Film Festival Digital Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Plot
During a federal investigation into a local homicide, FBI Special Agent Terry McCaleb goes outside to address the media, but spots the so-called "code murderer" in the crowd. He chases the man and wounds him, but the chase ends when McCaleb suffers a heart attack.

Two years later and now retired, McCaleb lives in a houseboat on the Long Beach bay. He receives a second chance at life with a heart transplant. He is approached by Graciella Rivers; her sister, Gloria, was murdered during a robbery and she asks him to solve the case. He discovers that the heart transplanted into him was Gloria's. He has nightmares of the robbery during which Gloria was murdered.

McCaleb, against the advice of his physician, decides to find the real murderer with the help of houseboat neighbor Jasper "Buddy" Noone and local police detective Jaye Winston. McCaleb's path leads to several wrong suspects, before he eventually realizes that Buddy is the real killer; knowing that McCaleb needed a heart transplant, Buddy murdered Gloria so that he and McCaleb could continue their cat and mouse game.

Buddy reveals that he has kidnapped Graciella and her nephew, Gloria's son Raymond. There is a shootout on a wrecked, marooned fishing boat. After McCaleb wounds Buddy a second time, Buddy attempts to reach for his gun only to be shot by McCaleb. Buddy's dying words are "I saved you." Graciella then reaches over and holds Buddy's face underwater, participating in his execution, and getting justice for her murdered sister. However, McCaleb starts another new life with Graciella and Raymond.

Production
Blood Work was filmed in spring 2002 in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, in 38 days.

Reception
Blood Work received mixed reviews. It has a score of 54% on Rotten Tomatoes, saying it was "a routine, but competently made thriller marred by lethargic pacing." However, A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote while it was similar to many Eastwood films, "there is something comforting in seeing this old warhorse trot gamely out of the gate for yet another run on familiar turf."

The film was not a box office success, grossing $31.8 million worldwide on a budget of $50 million.