Inner darkness is out of control in this thriller set in New Orleans. A veteran cop(Clint Eastwood)is put in peril when evidence links him to the serial murders he is investigating. Genevieve Bujold co-stars. Twelve year old Alison Eastwood plays one of the cop's two daughters, and surprisingly holds her own. This shady thriller is worth your time. The pace is a little slow, but very intense. Some pretty cool sets and mellow jazz. Don't get too relaxed.

This is NOT the sort of film to show your kids, pastor or mother. The film has a decent amount of nudity and has lots of sexual content. And, unlike Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry films, this leading man is one kinky cop! As I said, it's pretty adult and a bit slimy.

The film begins with a murder. The detective sent in to investigate is Eastwood--and at first he seems like a pretty normal sort of fella. However, you soon learn that he's a divorced man with two young girls. This isn't the unusual thing--what's unusual is while he continues investigating a string of prostitute murders, he begins sleeping with these professional girls as well. Pretty odd--but what's even more odd is that soon some of the girls that service him begin showing up dead! While it's never implied that he's committed the murders, it's obvious that there is SOME sort of connection between him and the killer. What it is and why is something you'll have to find out for yourself.

As I said above, this is an awfully adult sort of film. While it has some nice tension and suspense, you almost feel like taking a bath when it's all over, as the film is very grim and nasty. If you like grim and nasty, by all means give it a try.

I have a couple final observations. While the film is set in New Orleans, I didn't notice a single character with a New Orleans accent!! In addition, it was nice to see that Genevieve Bujold's character is NOT some simpering woman but fights hard and dirty when the killer attacks her. nice seeing a heroine who fights back

When Clint Eastwood was making his Dirty Harry films we never did get to see too much of the private life of Harry Callahan. In Tightrope playing New Orleans detective Wes Block that lack is more than made up for.

Clint's a family man in this one raising two small girls one of them played by his real life daughter Alyson on his own. But he's also indulging himself with a lot of prostitutes who can give him a bit of variety in turn-ons. But then these same women keep winding up dead in some terribly gruesome manners and of course Eastwood is starting to think he could be the ultimate target.

Director Richard Tuggle kept an even tighter rein on Clint's emotions than normal. Only at a certain dramatic point that I won't reveal do we see Clint revert to a Dirty Harry type character. In the end it's really the minute details found in forensic science that identifies the killer, but even with that the killer does not go down easy. In fact the final struggle between Eastwood and the perpetrator ends quite unforgettably.

Clint's leading lady is Genevieve Bujold who plays a rape crisis counselor who believes in a pro-active type of counseling with her victims. It's by no means certain these two will get together in the end though they both spark some interest in each other.

In Tightrope the accent is on suspense more than action, though when the action comes it explodes. There is by the way one very good reason for this killer to be so tough for the police to take down, but you'll have to see Tightrope for that. Clint Eastwood's legion of fans should be pleased enough with this film.