Not without faults .... but enjoyable nonetheless....

Rating: 7/10 (12 March 2009)

A lot has been written about this film - Clint's last acting gig, an old Dirty Harry - a supposedly great film. It was not great but I enjoyed it. I think the thing with Eastwood is - you either like him or you don't. I like him. Sure he's made some terrible films in the past (Absolute Power anyone?) but he more than makes up for those with his good ones (Dollars trilogy/Josey Wales). This is not his best nor his worst outing.
The character he plays is a Korean war veteran who finds himself alone in the world after the death of his wife. His neighbourhood is almost entirely occupied by Asians and after 50 years working on the Ford assembly line - finds himself with nothing in common with his kids and his only friend is his dog. Most films these days are so PC that they lose all remnants of believability - not so this one. Eastwood's character Walt Kowalski calls it as he sees it - and does not hold back on the insults. Especially race-related ones.
So what happens here? Not much really. It is a slow piece of work with no big moments (until the end) and follows the relationship between an aging old man and a good-hearted naïve young Asian boy next door. Now that sounds a little seedy if taken out of context ;-) But somehow it seems to work. Despite the bad acting from some of the Asian actors (who can be excused as it was their first time in front of a camera) and a priest actor who is in my mind the most blandest, irrelevant, worst-acted character in the whole movie (this guy could have coloured the movie a bit if Clint put in a heavy hitter for this part - I kept thinking Norton as I watched) - the movie still has some good things going for it. The storyline is okay without being spectacular and the references to the Gran Torino in the title was not strong enough for me. But Clint's character is like so many of his previous reincarnations - that you just have to root for him.
But it is not without its faults: - The editing at times seem to make basic chronological mistakes. Eastwood does tend not to follow normal film-making rules when editing films with characters popping up all over the place in adjacent scenes - but a special mention here must go to the scene where Eastwood is smoking in the bath. He tells his dog to go easy on him smoking in the house as he never does that. Yet 5 minutes EARLIER we see him smoking in the living room with no such problems. - Believability is stretched at times. Eastwood pulls up to three black guys hassling Sue's character. He stares them all down and spits on the ground ala Josey Wales' "You gonna pull them pistols or whistle Dixie" scene. The youths are big, scary black guys - Clint is old, decrepit and even though he pulls a gun eventually - the menace is no longer there. He also manages to beat up a gang-hardened youth on the kid's front lawn. As much as I want the 78 year old 'Man-with-no-name' throwback to exact some vengeance - is it credible? No. - Irrelevant scenes permeate the film too. Okay - it is hard to stretch out this story as not much happens but there are still some things which do not advance the story one little bit. The barber for instance adds nothing of worth to the plot - and if those scenes were not there - nobody would notice. However - having said that, the second scene where Thao has to talk tough in the barber shop is hilarious. - The acting. Hmmm. Dodgy. Clint is fine - as usual - and so is the girl Asian - Sue. The priest is terrible, Thao hit and miss and some of the Asian gang leave a lot to be desired too. But can you blame these guys? No - it is their first time. Can you blame Clint for putting them up there? Maybe - a little. - The end. I won't give it away but I'd be surprised if you don't see it from a mile off. Clint gives plenty of hints as to what's coming.
For me Gran Torino was an enjoyable watch - slow but engaging - not without faults but the overall movie misses its mark on too many occasions to be truly considered great. 7/10.