Over the past couple of decades, Clint Eastwood has received more acclaim as a director than an actor. His behind-the-camera work in films like Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, and Mystic River have earned him a bunch of awards and nominations, as well as unending accolades from critics.
Personally, however, I find Eastwood films to be hit or miss. For example, while I enjoyed Million Dollar Baby, I didn’t think Mystic River was all that great. And even when I do like his films, I tend to have more of a lukewarm reaction to them than otherwise. So when Gran Torino started playing around here, I wasn’t exactly in a hurry to go out and see it, especially with the other good choices that were available. As it turns out, I was right not to get overly excited about this one.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Eastwood stars as Walt Kowalski, a grumpy, racist Korean War veteran who has lived in the same Detroit neighborhood for decades. Over the years, he has watched white folks take off for the suburbs while Hmong immigrants moved in. Soon, it seems that Walt is the only white man left on the block, a fact that leaves him spitting and muttering to himself in disgust.
Thanks to the recent death of his wife, Walt finds himself with a lot of free time on his hands. He usually chooses to spend this time sitting on his porch drinking beer and watching what’s going on in the neighborhood. That’s when he notices a car full of gang-bangers bothering his next-door neighbor Thao (played by Bee Vang). Thao is a quiet teenage boy who mostly just minds his own business, but Walt can see right away that the kid has no chance against the gang-bangers.
Walt is proven correct one night when he hears strange noises emanating from his garage. Grabbing a shotgun, he goes out to investigate, and finds Thao in there trying to steal his car. The boy gets away — barely — and Walt basically writes him off as a lost cause. But things change when Thao’s family finds out about what happened, and in accordance with Hmong custom, force Thao to do odd jobs for Walt in order to pay off the debt.
As the two work together, they start to develop a true friendship and respect for one another. Walt softens a great deal not only towards Thao, but to the whole family, and is soon spending lots of time with them. He takes Thao under his wing, tries to turn him into a “man”, and ends up making the ultimate sacrifice for the boy at the end of the film.
My Reaction: I didn’t think any part of Gran Torino was original at all, except for maybe the whole Hmong component. Otherwise, it played like a bunch of different race relation clichés all rolled into one. Grumpy old man set in his racist ways? Check. Non-Caucasian characters put up with direct racist insults from old man because they see he really has a heart of gold? Check. Some outlandish event brings these two diverse characters together and forces them to get to know each other? Check. Racist white man starts to see Hmong neighbors as individuals instead of “gooks”? Check. Ho hum. Sorry, but I just couldn’t get into this premise at all.
Furthermore, the acting in the film was utterly atrocious. I thought the supporting cast was awful, but Eastwood was just as bad in my opinion. His whole take on Walt seemed to be to just groan and mutter whenever he saw something he didn’t like, which was often. I mean, it was comical, though I doubt that was Eastwood’s intention. I’m truly surprised that a lot of critics are praising his role here, as I think it’s one of the worst things he’s done as an actor.
Overall, I didn’t see many positive things in Gran Torino, and certainly wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. It plays more like a bad after school special than a thoughtful piece on cultural differences and acceptance. Don’t waste your time on this tripe! I give it 2 stars out of 5.
The newest episode of How I Met Your Mother was called “Three Days of Snow” — and I just couldn’t get into any of the stories. I thought Marshall and Lily’s storyline was kind of lame, and making it the focal point of the whole ep was just the wrong way to go. Yes, we get that they’re a saccharine couple and nauseatingly caught up in each other. We’ve known that all along, so why was it necessary to bring this stuff front and center? Those two were great in Season 1 and 2, but have had nothing to do since then. Giving them boring storylines like this doesn’t help one bit.
Last night’s episode of Desperate Housewives was called “The Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened” — and I thought it was terrific! It was the show’s 100th episode, so creator Marc Cherry decided to do something completely different. He took a break from the season-long story arcs, introduced a new character named Eli Scruggs, promptly killed off Eli, and then used flashbacks to show how Eli had affected each of the wives’ lives.
Lots of new releases cracked the Top 10 this week, which served to significantly shake up the box office charts. The new No. 1 movie in America is Paul Blart: Mall Cop, starring Kevin James in the title role. Despite the generally negative reviews that this type of lowbrow comedy usually inspires, Paul Blart: Mall Cop earned a very strong $33.8 million to dethrone last week’s champion Gran Torino, which slipped to second place with $22.2 million in ticket sales.
I borrowed a couple of Catherine Coulter audiobooks from a friend several weeks ago without really knowing anything about the author. It was only after I finished the first of the two audiobooks, The Cove, that I realized Coulter writes cheesy romance/thrillers with the most ludicrous situations, dialogue, and characterization you can imagine. Nevertheless, I decided to give the second title I borrowed (Double Take) a try, just to see if that first book was an aberration. It wasn’t.
Grey’s Anatomy 5×12 — “Sympathy for the Devil”: Wow, color me impressed! I actually loved last night’s Grey’s Anatomy episode! It presented the perfect blend of drama and comedy, and was about as good as the show has been in the past two years. Sure, I could have done without seeing Denny’s ghost yet again, but seriously, I’ve learned to ignore those scenes by now. (As an aside, if Denny’s ghost is a symptom of some neurological problem that Izzie has, why is he manifesting himself to Alex now?? That made zero sense!)
Private Practice 2×12 — “Homeward Bound”: I really liked this episode of Private Practice. For the first time in a long time, I was interested in every storyline, even the ones involving the patients. I called the grandma lesbian thing as soon as the patient was reluctant to move away, but even so, I was still interested in how the son reacted. Also, the dad with the impossible choice regarding his children — let his daughter die alone or be with her and leave his son all alone in the world — was completely heartbreaking. Wow.
We love our iPods in my family! We currently have 5 that are in regular use, from a second generation Mini (remember those?) to the latest 5G video Classic, and all are in fantastic working condition. The only problem we have is when we want to listen to music or audiobooks through a speaker rather than the headphones. Most of the products out there are either far too pricey or only accommodate certain iPod models, which would leave several of ours out in the cold.
Barbara Walters has been an icon in television news for more than 50 years, hosting such major programs as Today, 20/20, and The View. In addition, she regularly produced some of the most compelling celebrity interviews ever aired on her Barbara Walters Specials, and developed a reputation as a journalist who asked questions that regular people wanted to know the answers to, and who could get interviewees to open up.
I’m ordinarily not a big fan of period pieces, but I do like Keira Knightley, so I was anxious to see The Duchess, a film about the life of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. Prior to watching the film, I read a little bit about the real Georgiana, and thought that she sounded like a very interesting person, a strong-willed woman far ahead of her times in terms of political and social activity. Unfortunately, the filmmakers decided to focus more on Georgiana’s unconventional home life with her husband and his mistress, which ironically made for a very conventional movie.