Clint Eastwood's swan song? If so, his career provides quite a story arc. Dirty Harry to the Messiah. The one thing I had heard about Gran Torino was that Eastwood growls throughout. Well, that at least is true, and it is mostly appropriate to the character. Eastwood plays Walt, a Korean war veteran who worked 40 odd years in the local Ford factory. He lives in the "old neighborhood" where all his neighbors are now Hmong immigrants. Walt's personality (he does growl at everything and everyone) leads him to befriend a couple of local kids and completely change his outlook on life, while not changing a bit. This is a classic hard exterior, sensitve guy, mentor story that ends with Eastwood saving the day. It held just the right tone, and put together excellent strings of dialogue that were simultaneously hilarious and too good to be real (much like Juno). The Hmong teens played their roles with just enough humility and brash-teen attitude to capture the struggle of teen life that is universal.
4-stars
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