Message is a bit forced, but entertaining for what it is

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2009)

As this movie opens Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) has just lost his wife and wants only to be left alone to sit on his front porch, drink beer, and comment on how the world is going to hell in a hand-basket. But no man is an island and life ultimately intrudes into Walt's world in the form of the Catholic priest of his church and a Hmong family that lives next door. Initially Walt has little use for the priest and nothing but racial slurs and contempt for his neighbors--he calls the young teenage boy who lives there "Zipperhead," a derogatory term he probably picked up when he was in the Korean war. The young boy's name is Thao and, in his more considerate moods, Walt calls him "Toad." As an initiation rite to get into a gang Thao is tasked with stealing Walt's prized 1972 Ford Gran Torino; this theft goes very wrong and Thao almost winds up being shot by Walt in the act of the theft. Thao's family requires him to atone for his attempted crime by working for Walt for several days and it is this event that begins to break through Walt's wall of prejudice as he comes to know the boy and his family.
You think you can predict what is going to happen, and that is mostly true, but things don't unfold in quite the way you might anticipate.
Eastwood can play "crusty old man" about as well as you could imagine anyone could. He literally growls on occasion and his expressions of pent up anger can be downright intimidating.
Our biases frequently start to break down when we get to know people in a prejudiced group. This message is forcefully hammered home here, but at least the movie is about topics that are real and important. In an era of endless teenage sex comedies, werewolf and zombie movies, and meaningless fantasies, this movie is an admirable departure, and enjoyable in its own right.