Review: Gran Torino

[Wick]

Perfect - 5 on a scale of 5 beams

Masterpiece. As terrific a Clint Eastwood movie as has ever been, Gran
Torino delivers everything a perfect movie should: its funny as hell,
deeply engaging, warmly affecting, sad yet uplifting. Movies come
fancier, bigger, louder, pricier, and with higher reality factors, but
they don't come any better than this.

The movie wears its ambitions on its sleeve by naming Clint's
character "Walt Kowalski," the last name shared with A Streetcar Named
Desire's Stanley, legendarily personified by the young Marlon Brando.
So here in Gran Torino we have a rookie screenwriter who names his own
emotionally inchoate brute "Kowalski," then gets a Brando-sized legend
to play the part. Ballsy, and it worked.

Gran Torino does to modern revenge dramas what Unforgiven did to
Westerns: use their hoary old conventions to subvert the genre. This
movie speaks to changes in America (cities degrade, new immigrant
groups struggle to establish themselves), changes in generations (an
emotionally remote grandfather begets emotionally besotted offspring),
and to the healing power of human connection.

As with Unforgiven, Clint plays an aged warrior troubled by the
killing he did as a young man. Here that setup leads him to make peace
with his racial demons, his paternal demons, and his automotive
obsession. Its a hat trick.

Director Eastwood brilliantly juxtaposes two confession scenes late in
the movie. In the first, we see Clint Kowalski through the
confessional screen separating him from his priest, who soon realizes
the confession is incomplete. Moments later, we see Kowalski through
the screen door separating him from his teenage charge, to whom he
delivers his most sacred confession. Wonderful film making, this.

Source: http://www.wikpik.com/movie_reviews/1589-gran-torino