Gran Torino
Widower, retired car worker, military veteran and seething American patriot Walt Kowalski, protagonist of this film, is played with grandstanding gusto and unfakable star quality by Clint Eastwood (who also directs and produces).
Walt bought a 1972 Ford Gran Torino “right off the line”, but keeps it in pristine condition in the garage. The house next door is now owned by a Hmong family — a widespread south-east-Asian minority — and Walt is a racist.
The political becomes personal when Thao (Bee Vang), a shy, bookish teenage boy who lives next door to Walt, is bullied into joining a gang and his initiation test is to bust into Walt’s garage and steal his treasured Gran Torino.
But the meeting of Walt and Thao is to change both their lives. Eastwood’s performance as Walt is a treat. No one else could conceivably have got away with the racist tirades, reactionary arias and bigoted broadsides.
He gets away with it because we know full well that he is eventually going to reveal that great big bruised and hurting heart-of-gold hidden under the faded grey T-shirt. Like its hero, this movie is a great big sentimental softie under its tough-guy persona. It’s still very conservative, though, and the jolting plot transitions are a little tough to take. — Peter Bradshaw