Clint Eastwood mows the lawn, fixes the clothes dryer.

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 2009)

"Gran Torino" is a funny movie. There are comments that it is a "racist" film but it's a film about racism which you can't make without racists.
Monsieur Eastwood found all sorts of opportunities to be funny but I liked when he found himself in the neighbor's basement with a bunch of kids, leaned against an unlevel dryer, got down and adjusted it. That was a beautiful, almost embarrassing, funny "old man" moment that was unexpected and so real. The machine is unlevel, get down and fix it. Totally unimportant to the scene but perfect.
"Watch out for Mr. Kowalski. He'll beat up your cousin, fix your dryer and make you like it."
There were some improbable scenes in this film like Walt being able to get close enough to the gangster to throw him down the stairs and the gangsters not spotting his white Ford pickup tailing them or across the street. Whatever. It was worth it to watch him mow the lawn.
Though it was a set-up for a joke, I could have lived without the barber-shop scene where Thau is being trained to trash-talk. But this is a film where Eastwood is playing an imperfect character who smokes, drinks, hates people and can't express his emotions except with negativity. He's playing the nasty, old racist next door and he does it well. Perfect characters make for boring films. And the punchline really was pretty good.
It was a great moment when he spat with disdain at the old Hmong woman and she out-spit him. God knows what she was spitting and it's unlikely that Walt would chew AND smoke but it was funny anyway.
When the Hispanics brought out their gun and the Hmong brought out their machine gun, that was funny. CE didn't shy away from finding humor in subtle places. Both the Hmong and Hispanic car drivers where wearing the same headbands in the same style.
Since the gangs may have been a metaphor for street soldiers, it's interesting that they started out defending Thau and tried to indoctrinate him but were ultimately a badguy gang of cowards.
Someone has said that Clint is playing a character here who supports war but that's not the message I got. Walt seemed to regret his memories of the war and participation in it.
C.Eastwood really is perfect in this film and the supporting players were understated and natural.
Walt didn't miss a philosophical beat dealing with Thau's immature idea that they were going to find the gangsters, do some damage and come home unscathed. That only happens "in the movies". Walt uses some tricky maneuvering to utilize the "never around when you need them" police and legal system to get the gangsters off the scene, save Thau and gracefully put himself out of his own "dying in an oncology ward" misery.
Walt sticks to his guns and, though he softens, he never gives in to the priestly pap but winds up teaching the priest instead. Maybe Walt learns something about forgiveness but the priest also learns how little HE knows about reality. Walt compromised without giving in. Wow.
Since the movie moves along as movies do without giving you much time to think, I didn't realize that Walt was getting a suit fitted for his own funeral. It's the kind of detail that they throw in, don't comment on and leave you to realize at your leisure. They could have thrown in some line from the tailor to make us question why Walt is getting a DARK suit fitted but they didn't and I completely missed the point until later. It was perfectly done since it didn't give away Walt's plan unless you're smarter than I am which isn't unlikely. I missed it.
This is a well-written script shot simply and acted amazingly well.