Gran Torino was hailed as something akin to a masterpiece when it first hit theatres back in 2008 (was it really that long ago?), but time hasn't been all that kind to Clint Eastwood's arguably awkward meditation on the generational gap, and, uh, racist old folks. Gran Torino is worth a watch, of course, but it's a noticeably flawed movie - the acting is questionable, the scenario far-fetched, the script... well, overwritten. Melodrama aside, Gran Torino now feels somewhat heavy-handed in its approach to the material. Yes, the flick tells a seemingly simple story about a retired old grump who attempts to "reform" the Hmong teenager who tries to steal his car, but it also clings to an annoying sense of self-righteousness: one of those movies that, like Crash, gathers ethnic characters and asks: "Hey, can't we all just get along?" Back to the acting: though Eastwood delivers many of his lines in a fashion best-described as a "grumble," you can forgive him for being a bit stilted. And yet the remaining cast members are near-on awful - everyone else seems like they've been pulled off the street and forced at gunpoint to act in the movie. In the end, it's far too distracting - the final blow to this good but otherwise overrated film.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
