Moving portrait of a surprisingly complicated man

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 2009)

Gran Torino is a compelling story about Walt Kowalski, a grizzled widower with a proclivity for uttering racial slurs, sipping Pabst Blue Ribbon, and caring for his mint condition 1972 Gran Torino. He is a relic from a different era living in a changing neighborhood, and the central story illuminates Kowalski's relationship with his Hmong immigrant neighbors. He is coping with change. He is, like most of us, a work in progress.
Kowalski is many things to many people. To some, he is a bully with a gun; to others, he is a hero. To some, he is distant with his family; to others, he is an independent spirit who can forge familial bonds with people from various walks of life. To some, he is a racist; to others, he is an individual who embraces the American melting pot, both historical and current (and a compelling argument against making racial slurs the sine qua non of racism).
Kowalski is deliberately over-the-top, a bit of a caricature, at times in the movie. Yes, he growls and scowls and spits chewing tobacco. Yes, he sits on his porch and drinks PBR and fixes household items. And yes, he owns and carries guns. But could this role really be played any other way? Too much subtlety would certainly strip this movie of its comic flavor and most of the drama, but more importantly too much subtlety would strip Gran Torino of its biggest effect, and it is simple:
You know you want to hate Kowalski. You want to tell yourself that he is the embodiment of what is wrong with America. He is prolific in the art of racial slurs and curse words; he must be bad. He carries a gun; he must be bad. He is aloof towards strangers and family alike; he must be bad. He's a one-dimensional man, a one-trick pony, a caricature of all that is bad. Yes, Walt Kowalski must be a bad guy. How is it then, by the end of the movie, Walt Kowalski has won his way into your heart and made you feel that, in spite of his flaws, he is what is right with America?
The irony behind the movie is that it is only those bad traits that are portrayed in such an over-the-top way, as if the movie is trying to rile up your cognitive dissonance mechanism. The audience is given plenty of ammunition with which to hate this man, and yet we don't. I found the moral of the story to be that when we, the onlooker, look at the superficial components to personality, we find and locate the things we want to hate. When we look to his inner story, there is sweetness and affection, zest and zeal. The good traits are always more subtle and require more effort and investment on the part of the onlooker. Walt's actions and reactions, even his little facial expressions (pay attention to the scene in the hardware store as he walks off camera), add richness and texture to his personhood. His good traits are shades of gray. His bad traits are black and white.
There are several strong accompanying acting performances (notably Ahney Her as "Sue") and the technical aspects of this movie are equally satisfying. That said, the movie isn't perfect. My biggest complaint is that although the ending packs an emotional wallop, there are some leaps in the plot, particularly with respect to legal matters, that are somewhat strained.