"Gran Torino" Review

Despite Masterful Direction, Eastwood
Fails to Impress with “Gran Torino.”
“Gran Torino” is the relatively predictable and somewhat obvious story of Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) becoming a reluctant hero to his neighborhood, which has been invaded (as Walt might say) by “gooks,” and “chinks.”
Walt, a brash and outspoken Korean War veteran is mourning the loss of his wife when we first meet him. Walt mourns like you would expect any war-hardened veteran to, by drinking in excess and spouting off so many upsetting things that just about everyone leaves his house disgusted. Walt’s neighborhood has become a Hmong community over several years and Walt is the only white person still living in the neighborhood. Walt’s neighbors, a Hmong family, consists of an adolescent boy named Thao (Bee Vang), his older sister Sue (Ahney Her), their mother, and ill-tempered grandmother who spits and grunts almost as much as Walt. Along with the mass of Hmong families coming to the neighborhood, Hmong gangs begin to become prevalent in Walt’s neighborhood. Thao’s older cousin is the leader of a gang and pesters Thao until he gives in to an initiation task, which is to steal Walt’s car.
After being caught attempting to steal Walt’s prized 1972 Gran Torino fast back from his garage as part of a gang initiation, Thao becomes an unexpected force of change for Walt. In an effort to repay Walt for saving Thao from his cousin’s gang, Thao’s mother forces him to work for Walt for a week. It is at this point that we begin to see that there is a lovable and nice side to Walt. Rather than make Thao do work in his own house, Walt has Thao fix up the house across the street because “I’m tired of looking at this shithole all the time.” As Walt and Thao continue working with each other they build a relationship and Walt becomes a mentor for Thao. Thao’s older sister Sue, a sassy and confident young lady becomes a friend of Walt and the Hmong neighbors all begin to open up and accept Walt into their lives just as Walt allows them into his.
Clint Eastwood’s supposed “final performance as an actor” did not quite reach the incredibly high standards that have been set for Eastwood with his legendary performance as Dirty Harry. While his technical direction proves once again that he is indeed a master of the trade, using simple shots to capture subtleties like only a true movie maverick could, the story is lacking. I found myself predicting every “twist” and “turn” of the plot and the story seemed to be in dire need of more subtleties and provoking dialogue rather than the grunts and racial slurs that became comedic by the end of the movie. Her’s poor performance as Sue had me wondering if I was watching a low-budget student movie or an actual big screen movie. Her history lessons and unconvincing emotion took away from the stellar performance of Bee Vang and also stole attention away from the lead, Clint Eastwood. Rather than focus on the story and plot I caught myself intent on Her’s misgivings as an actor and wondering when the next history lesson would come. Between the predictable plot and deficient supporting actors, Gran Torino was a poor way for a legend to go out.