Get Off My Lawn

Rating: 9/10 (10 January 2009)

Clint Eastwood has done it again. The man is over 70 years old, and yet his skills in cinema never seem to wane. I went into Gran Torino with a full house, most of whom were expecting Dirty Harry to charge onto the screen, plowing people down left and right and showing youngin's what for.
I'm pleased to say that's not what was given. What the audience is given is a look at an aging man's life, and the conflicts he deals with after his wife's death. There's plenty of laughs from Eastwood's character, a bigoted Korean War veteran, and a few rounds of him kicking *expletive*, but Eastwood's character at heart is a misunderstood man who only acts in the way he knows how to. At its core it's a film about not redemption, but about coming to terms and peace with the ghosts and horrors of our lives and-while not dismissing them-not letting them stop us from living.
Eastwood's performance was the best I've seen in a film in a long time (Yes, Heath Ledger as the Joker. Better than you.), and he single handedly carries the movie himself. My only real complaint is with some of the supporting cast, but since the majority of the film revolves around Eastwood's interactions with his hmong neighbors, and since Eastwood hired only hmong actors for those roles, it can be forgiven. None of the supporting cast made me cringe, but a lot of their lines fell flat and didn't feel real.
That aside, it had everything I look for in a movie: It made me laugh, it made me smile, it made me think, and it kept me entertained. It also almost made me shed a tear at one portion. A movie that's actually "heart warming" without being a mushy badly written family fest, it's a definite see for anyone who won't mind the swearing (even I was taken aback for a moment after hearing Clint himself drop the F-bomb), and should be another contender for Clint Eastwood to get himself a few more Academy Awards.