Go Ahead, Make His Day

A review of Gran Torino.

Watching Gran Torino evoked the feeling you get when you watch a youngster take his first training-wheels-free ride on a bicycle – you hold your breath while he weaves and wobbles and fervently hope he can stay on without faltering, or worse, crashing, and when it’s over, it’s taken a little longer to get from point A to point B than it should’ve, but you applaud the accomplishment enthusiastically because all in all, it was an ambitious task completed with aplomb. Directed by Clint Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima, Million Dollar Baby) and written by Nick Schenk (with story credit to Dave Johannson and Nick Schenk), Gran Torino is a well-paced, engaging, affecting drama. As with a child’s maiden two-wheel voyage, Gran Torino pressed the line between success and disaster, as, at various times, it flirted with being overly-earnest, cartoonish or predictably stereotypical. Luckily for the audience, Mr. Eastwood is an incredibly skillful director, aided immensely on this project by his own substantial acting chops.

Mr. Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a freshly widowed, sharply grizzled Korean war vet living in the same house in which he raised his family. From the first moment you meet Walt (that’s “Mr. Kowalski” to you), his loneliness is palpable. With his wife gone, the most meaningful relationship he has is with his barber, who rivals him in crankiness. Walt’s bond with his two sons and their families is distant at best. His priest, Father Janovich (Christopher Carley), looks like he’s not old enough to drive, let alone legally consume the sacramental wine or tend his flock. Plus, Walt is an unrepentant racist sonofabitch, further isolating him from even the people in his neighborhood, which has changed over the many years he’s resided there and now consists largely of Hmong immigrants. So it surprises everyone, himself included, when Walt takes a shine to Thao (Bee Vang), the teenage boy next door (after Walt’s caught him trying to steal the prized 1972 Gran Torino of the film’s title), and develops a friendship with him and his sister, Sue (Ahney Her). Unfortunately, the transitioning character of the neighborhood has also included an infiltration of gang activity, and Walt can’t stop himself from getting to involved to protect his new friends, embroiling himself in a vicious, dangerous cycle of violence from which no good can ultimately come.

Mr. Eastwood’s portrayal of Walt is fully committed to the snarling nastiness of the bigot that lies at Walt’s core. But he equally allows the human side of Walt to seep through, the side made up of genuine goodness that desires a connection with people and sincerely wants to help. It is the precision of maintaining this balance that was so effective in preventing Walt from becoming cartoonish, in keeping Walt feeling real. Less effective was the aspect of Walt’s character that was haunted by his Korean war experience. Telegraphed by an ongoing push-pull with Father Janovich over whether Walt will fulfill his wife’s dying wish to go to confession, Mr. Eastwood doesn’t so much show us Walt’s feelings about his war experience as tell them, which gives us less to connect with.

What Mr. Eastwood does beautifully as a director, though, is show us how the various relationships at the center of Gran Torino develop. There was a poignancy and organic quality to the progression of Walt’s relationships with Thao, Sue, Father Janovich and even Thao and Sue’s grandmother (Chee Thao), who spoke no English. In particular, Walt’s relationship with the grandmother brought a little comic relief. Gran Torino is a serious, heavy tale and it was a great counterbalance that the script, direction and performances made use of humor to lighten things up, because otherwise seeing the movie would’ve been a ponderous experience.

But there were a number of flaws in the film. While the script did make good use of humor, some of the dialogue felt overwritten, almost novel-esque. A number of the characters did veer into the cartoonish realm – the degree to which Walt’s sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren were portrayed as selfish and self-centered was exaggerated; less would’ve been more. Further, in the hands of a lesser actor, I suspect that Walt would also have veered into this territory; Mr. Eastwood’s performance elevated the movie significantly. And while I applaud Mr. Eastwood for what appeared to be authentic casting of Hmong actors in the Hmong roles, several of the characters, particularly Sue and Thao, came off as a bit unnatural, particularly evident only because both of them shared so many scenes with the masterful Mr. Eastwood.

These flaws, however, do not amount to enough to interfere with one’s overall appreciation of Gran Torino. While it certainly isn’t the “feel good movie” of 2009, it’s a compelling tale that merits viewing on the big screen. Ride on over to your local theater and give it a test drive.