Movie Review: Gran Torino

Gran Torino. This is an excellent movie. A friend who also saw the movie gave it rave reviews, but discounted the acting skills of the Asian actors. I thought they were just fine. (The issue here is that many of the Asians in the movie aren’t professional actors.) The story starts out at a funeral. Walt Kowalski’s wife has just died. They live in a neighborhood that has culturally transitioned from European to Hmong. Kowalski is a bit of a racist and doesn’t get along with his neighbors. A youth living next door to Kowalski by the name of Tao has a cousin in a gang. The cousin pressures him into trying to steal Kowalski’s Gran Torino. Kowalski becomes aware of the theft-in-progress and confronts the kid. Over the next few days or weeks, Kowalski slowly becomes more involved with Tao and his family and then in the neighborhood at large as he sees the need to stand up to the local gangs.

I found myself wrapped up in storytelling. You see a racist who slowly softens his stance to his Asian neighbors. He sees his neighborhood as being run down and despises the fact that the Hmong don’t keep their properties up, but learns that one reason is the fact that they are too poor to do the necessary upkeep. You see a person who was likely involved in his community at one point, but then withdrew as he saw the cultural shift occur, but then finds a reason to get re-involved. Even though the film is seen as an anti-PC movie, it also has certain qualities that affirm the need to stay involved in your neighborhood. You also see how he has issues with his own family members. His children don’t like to be around him. His daughter-in-laws are greedy. One grandchild is a spoiled brat. This is partially his fault and he realized this as time passes.

Kowalski gets involved with his neighborhood to the extent that he feels he must do something about the local gang harassing his next door neighbors. His actions cause a violent reaction. This leads to the powerful finale.

Criticism: There are always issues in any movie that you can question and complain about. My one complaint is in regards to the priest. When the gang reacts to Kowalski’s actions, the priest comes over to discuss matters with Kowalski. It seems to me that he advocates aggressive measures against the gang during the meeting, but then later on reverses himself. If I interpreted the priest’s initial reaction, an appropriate explanation to this reversal isn’t provided in the movie.

Of the Oscar potential movies I’ve seen, I’d have to say that this movie deserves a nod for Best Picture. Unfortunately, it got no Oscar nods at all.