A Gran Old Movie

In my press to see all of last year's "Oscar buzz" films, Clint Eastwood's movie Gran Torino slid through the cracks on my list. That's just what it did for the Oscars themselves; many critics were talking about its potential, yet it received no Oscar nods. Now that I've seen it for myself, I think I know why.

Gran Torino actually isn't a bad movie. In fact, it's a fairly good one. But it is a rather cliché movie. Maybe you've seen another film like this, maybe you haven't, but it feels like you have when you watch it. Eastwood plays a crotchety windower living in a neighborhood that's filled in with "foreigners" and gang violence. But he learns to see past his prejudices when he forms an unlikely friendship with a young man and his sister who move in next door.

It's an interesting paradox of a movie. It feels crafted and manipulative much of the time, and yet it manipulates effectively -- it does generate genuine emotion along the way. There aren't any surprises in it, not as the plot develops, and certainly not with the ending that any movie buff is going to see coming before the end of the second act. And yet it all feels like the "right" way for this story to be told, and so it makes it easy to forgive the obviousness.

Clint Eastwood once again proves himself a strong director. His own performance isn't that exceptional, but he gets great performances from the rest of his cast. He has an eye for interesting frames, and an ear for the rhythm of a scene.

The movie didn't blow me away, and yet for something that was overlooked by the Academy Awards, I liked it better than many of the movies that were nominated last year. I give Gran Torino a B.