A Vintage Vehicle but Hardly a Classic

Rating: Null/10 (17 January 2009)

Gran Torino is a rather one dimensional vehicle for Clint Eastwood, who has been one of my favorite actors since Rawhide. I freely admit I was disappointed by it and I don't share the general adulation of other reviewers, amateur and professional.
My viewing experience was also rather strange. At 53 I'm well used to being a very unimportant part of the demographic - I 'get' that I'm not supposed to be a movie fan. That important role is left to the 18 to 30 age group. (We'll ignore that I have 2 kids in that age category who go to the movies one tenth as often as I do) So finding myself in a movie theatre full of people far older than me was a slightly unnerving experience. And I haven't shared a movie viewing with such a vocal audience since Brokeback Mountain, and, just like BBM, the audience laughed heartily. I'm still digesting quite why. Gran Torino is mildly amusing in places but really, it's not that funny. It's tragic. The genuinely hearty laughter from the 'mature' audience at all the racist jokes left me mildly bemused.
Eastwood plays embittered Korean War vet, and ex Ford car plant worker Walt, who has been recently widowed. He's being patronized by a wet-behind-the-ears young priest who promised his late wife that he'd keep an eye on Walt for her. He's hung on in the old neighborhood even as it's got rougher and tougher as various migrant groups have moved in, his family are pretty much waiting for him to die so they can inherit whatever goodies there are, and, the final insult for our politically incorrect hero, a family of Asians (Hmoung) live next door. And they are not heavily into lawn care. Walt pretty much thinks an Asian is an Asian and they're all equally undesirable as neighbours, after all he fought them in a war. He's an old school racist.
When the son Thao (Bee Vang) attempts  very ineptly  to steal Walt's muscle car, a '72 Ford Gran Torino, as part of a gang initiation he doesn't want to do, Walt gives him a series of chores as retribution, and a tentative father-son relationship ensues. Thao's brighter and westernised sister Sue (Ahney Her) becomes the conduit via which Walt and the neighbours start to interact. The point is somewhat labored that Walt lives alone, alternately ignored or patronized by his family who clearly find him tedious, while the Hmoung all seem to live in one big happy extended family with granny cheerfully spitting on the front porch. Walt digs out his old war weapon and chases off the gang when they harass Thao, thus becoming an unlikely neighbourhood hero. Grateful, they smother him with food and hospitality whether he wants it or not, but trouble is brewing that will eventually lead to tragedy. Alongside the story of Walt, the gang and his neighbours is the coming of age tale of the eager young priest (Christopher Carley), and Walt's failing health.
So far so good. The movie isn't too badly written and its heart is in the right place. It seems a little out of date now  with the economy in freefall and construction jobs being shed faster than a Labrador's hair, I doubt Walt could really get a totally inexperienced kid a job on a building site no matter how well he knew the Irish foreman  and I found Walt's attempt to teach Thao 'manly' interaction at the barber's shop fairly excruciating  wherever these guys live it's apparently still 1957. Walt hates everyone including his own sons and grandchildren but the thought that they might have gained their family values from him never seems to occur to him.
The cinematography is good with the house interiors, the neighbourhood, the yards and the church all looking genuinely authentic. But the movie sags in the middle and feels very contrived, all the characters are one dimensional and the acting is best described as adequate. If this were not Eastwood, and he were not 78, I doubt this would be scoring 8.5 out of 10 (as it is at the time of writing) on IMDb. In fact, I doubt it would have gotten made. It lacks any real bite, and is fairly predictable. It's not actively bad, but it's simply not as good as it could be or as many IMDb reviewers seem to think it is, and Eastwood is in danger of becoming a parody of himself. There is a level on which I think it appeals to the audience's basest instincts, and I'm still disquieted by all that hearty laughter from my cinema companions. But maybe it's me.