The best performance of Eastwood's career.

Rating: 8/10 (14 January 2009)

I've never been a fan of Clint Eastwood, as a writer or director. In fact I've hated almost every single film he's directed or starred in. When I first saw the trailer for Gran Torino, I couldn't stop laughing. I thought it looked absolutely ridiculous and full to the brim with clichés and stupidity. So all things were pointing to this being one of my least favorite films of the year. Much to my surprise, it turned out to be quite the opposite. Gran Torino is one of the best films of the year, Eastwood's best directorial work since Mystic River and it contains the greatest performance of his career.
That's not to say it's without flaws, of course. As a whole, the film is very clichéd (the angry old man mentors the naive, fatherless boy, the angry old war veteran is haunted by his past, etc.) but that's easy to look past because it's not a film about the story; not really. It's about this character and his transition throughout. Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) is a bitter, angry old man. He spends his days drinking beer on his porch with his dog, admiring his beautiful lawn and the 1972 Gran Torino he has sitting in his garage. When he's not on his porch, he's growling to himself, talking to his dog about his disgust for the Koreans who have moved into his neighborhood. Walt is a traditional man, and it's easy to see why things in his life make him hate his family (his grandchildren where football jerseys and shirts revealing their bellies to his wife's funeral, for instance) and isolate himself to his home.
His disgust for the world is put to the test when a group of Hmong gangbangers attack the young boy who lives next door to him, and Walt steps in with a rifle when they cross over onto his lawn. He saves the young boy, Thao (Bee Vang) and as a result the Hmongs in the neighborhood start to worship Walt and consider him a savior to the people living there. At first Walt turns away their love and admiration, but slowly they beat it into him to the point where he accepts their gifts and starts to associate with his neighbors. They bring down the wall of anger that Walt has built up around him over the years, and when they start to move into his life he realizes that he has more in common with these people he detested than he does with his own family. He finds a common understanding with the Hmong family next door, and accepts Thao's request to help him with chores around the house. What results from this is your typical story of an old man mentoring the young, fatherless boy, but Eastwood has a way of making it all feel fresh. Nick Schenk's screenplay definitely helps in making it feel more original than one would expect. To my knowledge there has never been a scene in a story like this where the old man takes the young boy to his barber to show him how to talk like a man, by insulting everyone your friends and doing nothing but complaining about how much life breaks your balls. Something I didn't expect from this film was just how intentionally hilarious it was. The scenes with the barber (the always under-appreciated John Carroll Lynch) are some of the funniest stuff of the year.
Walt invests himself into the Hmongs life and when the gangbangers come back and start harassing Thao and his sister Sue (Ahney Her), he feels a responsibility to step in and protect them. Walt wants to do something meaningful at the end of his life, something to repay for the sins he committed in the war and defend the few people who he feels are good in this world. It's all a little typical, but as I said earlier, Gran Torino isn't really about the story. It's a character study of a haunted old man who opens his door and finds that the people he despised are actually more akin to himself than his own family, and the fact that he'll do anything to protect the people he's come to care for throughout the film. Clint Eastwood directs this all with that old Hollywood feel he's been pouring into his films this decade which makes it feel very cinematic, which is a good thing in the context of the film.
The real shining aspect of this film, however, is his performance which is astonishing. He imbues Kowalski with an air of Dirty Harry and it works so well for the character, because this all feels like it could be the final installment of the Dirty Harry franchise and it would be the best film in that solid series. Eastwood doesn't hold anything back, slurring off every racist remark in the book within the first half hour and making it all feel so believable. And despite all of the racism and bitter resentment for everything in the world, Kowalski remains an insanely likable character (the fact that I found a lot to relate to in him definitely helps, but it mostly comes entirely from Eastwood's brilliant portrayal). I enjoyed watching him for every second he was on screen and as his heart warmed to the Hmongs (without ever getting sentimental or anything close), so did mine. The Hmong actors all give pretty terrible performances (especially Her), but it's easy to look past that when the film is anchored by such a tremendous lead. On the surface, Gran Torino seems like something typical and potentially ridiculous. But don't let that deceive you. This is a subtle, powerful film with an ending as devastating as it is moving.