Review: Gran Torino
A slightly off-beat drama from Clint Eastwood, where he mixes in an abundantly amount of black humor and racial obscenity into his scruffy character. It’s a bit surprising, after the full drama-only pics like Changeling, Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers and Million Dollar Baby, as the setup also takes longer than usual. The main part of the story is mainly his character in a bad mood and antagonising family, friends, and whoever else he comes across. This does dull the story a bit, and also doesn’t allow the movie to really develop. The upside is, as time goes on and more extreme dialogue makes it all the more unbelievable (and almost tedious, at 90 minutes in), you do get to care about the characters. And as this charicature slowly softens (predictable, though), the drama kicks in.
A respectable ending makes this movie enjoyable, even though I don’t agree with all the casting decisions and overall acting.7½.