Excellent and Moving

Rating: 9/10 (6 December 2014)

I went into this picture expecting nothing more than grouchy Clint Eastwood spouting racial slurs, about the only thing I knew from the film. I walked away feeling deeply touched and moved by Eastwood's riveting performance as a Korean War veteran who recently lost his wife and is coping with the fact he lives next door to the nationality of people he fought in the war. His neighborhood in Detroit is teeming with various nationalities and gangs and he's in the middle of it all, though not the level-headed protagonist you'd want to fix the neighborhood.
The next door neighbor's kid, Tao, is forced to steal Walt's (Eastwood) Gran Torino by a gang and this leads to a bond between Walt and the kid. Walt teaches him the value of good work and the two become friends in a strange sort of way. Thus we see development on two sides, we see the racist and bigoted old man becoming more worldly and caring and we see Tao become a man.
The end of the movie is emotionally draining and rough, not so much ending on a happy note as a bitter sweet one.
Everything in this movie works and I've found that as a film, it's near perfect. The only detractor comes from some of the secondary performances, Tao and his sister mainly, who are completely overshadowed by Eastwood.
If you haven't seen this movie yet, I highly recommend it. It's a touching piece of film and a great coming of age story.