Tightrope - film review
In this domestic drama Clint Eastwood plays divorcee Wes Block, a single parent trying to balance the demands of a full-time job with the pressures of bringing up a young family in New Orleans.
The household comprises his two daughters, a collection of pet dogs, and Mrs Holstein, the part-time housekeeper/childminder. Block enjoys a strained relationship with his ex-wife and her new partner, creating a sense of uncertainty that hangs over the children's future. Their feelings of insecurity are further heightened by Block's frequent nocturnal absences, resulting from both his anti-social working hours, and a growing interest in exploring the boundaries of his sexuality in the city's red light district.
In the course of his day job Block also strikes up a relationship with Beryl Thibodeaux, a counsellor from the women's centre, and this helps him to steer his desires towards a more conventional path. However when Leander Rolfe, the serial killer he has been tracking breaks into Block's home killing Mrs Holstein and traumatising his daughters, all thoughts of romance are hastily cast aside. The pursuit of Rolfe becomes Block's top priority, and following some excellent investigatory police work, the miscreant is swiftly caught but regrettably killed whilst attempting to resist arrest.
The storyline offers a realistic account of the manifold demands of modern day lifestyles. Block's circumstances - single parenthood, high pressure job, unconventional sexual appetite, barbarians at the gate - are the very stuff of everyday life. It would be an incurious viewer indeed who did not subsequently examine his or her own life choices.