Clint Eastwood, creaking a bit at the joints, tries one of the movies' stock characters on for size - a reporter who, down on his luck, gets one last chance at redemption when he sets out to prove that a prisoner (Isaiah Washington) on death row didn't kill a store clerk six years earlier. The characters and situations are credible and well-drawn, the scenes are often tensely handled, and there's a compulsive feel about the newspaper office and prison settings. Clint's own direction is fast-paced and compelling, so it's just the cheesy, clichéd plot that lets this carefully crafted movie down. James Woods romps away with the honours as Eastwood's cynical newspaper editor, raising some big laughs.