At the Cineplex: Gran Torino (2008)

Director/star Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino is a formula picture in the best sense of the term. It establishes its characters, plant its seeds of inevitability, and lets the story unfold pretty much in the way we expect, the way we mostly want it to play out. What elevates it is Eastwood’s terrific performance.

Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) has just lost his wife, and he now lives alone in a neighborhood where he is in the minority. Wanting to be left alone he is nevertheless drawn into the life of his Hmong neighbors when a gang tries to abduct Thao (Bee Vang), a teenaged boy who lives next door to Walt and is the gang leader’s cousin. Walt eventually lets down his defenses to help Thao and his sister Sue (Ahney Her) try to evade the world of violence that is closing in on them.

Not much of what happens in Gran Torino is very surprising. We know that Walt’s seemingly innocuous cough during his wife’s funeral means what such a thing always means in the movies. We know that Thao will eventually be more of a friend to Walt than Walt's own sons or grandchildren. And we know that Walt will eventually do what his late wife wanted him to do regarding the parish priest.

But Eastwood the actor puts so much conviction, and eventually heart, into Walt that he rises above stereotypes. Walt is a racist, a bigot, ornery, unpleasant, sour, etc. But ultimately he gets interested in life again by helping a young man who, without some kind of guidance, will eventually either succumb and join a gang, or die trying to avoid that very fate. Walt sees this as a chance to perhaps assuage some of the guilt he feels over killing young men in South Korea. There is genuine warmth in sweetness in the scene in Walt’s backyard where he barbecues for his young neighbors. And the film has earned its tears by the end.

The greater theme here, of course, is that young men need a father figure, or at least a respectable authority figure, in their lives to guide them the challenges they face growing up amongst violence. But Gran Torino never gets preachy or pretentious. This is a film where we know the destination, but find the journey getting there oh so enjoyable.