'Gran Torino' sputters, but still delivers

Eastwood's cantankerous character holds this incongruous film together

BY RAFER GUZMAN - NEWSDAY

Published: 01/09/09


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(L-r) Walt Kowalski (CLINT EASTWOOD), Thao (BEE VANG), Vu (BROOKE CHIA THAO), Grandma (CHEE THAO) and Sue (AHNEY HER) in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' drama "Gran Torino."

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

GRAN TORINO

**1/2 Rated: R, violence, language, adult themes. Starring: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her. Director: Clint Eastwood. Running time: 116 minutes. Theaters: Northgate, Edwards 21, Edwards 14, Edwards 9, Majestic 18.

Part modern-day Western, part vigilante flick, part after-school special, Clint Eastwood's oddball drama "Gran Torino" remains entertaining right up to the end credits, during which you can scratch your head and wonder what you've just seen. One thing is certain: That is, indeed, Eastwood singing the jazzy closing number with Jamie Cullum.

The film is named for a 1972 Ford muscle car, a relic that's in better shape than its owner, Walt Kowalski (Eastwood). A retired auto worker, newly widowed, Kowalski spends his days chugging Pabst, dwelling on the Korean War and cursing the Hmong immigrants taking over his neighborhood. When his teenage neighbor, Thao (Bee Vang), is beaten by gangster relatives, Kowalski enforces the peace with his M-1 rifle, becoming a hero but also launching a cycle of escalating violence.

Eastwood, 78, has made a career of playing mangy old curs, which means he's pitch-perfect here. His fierce canines and popping neck veins (they're almost audible) make him believable, even while pummeling a man one-fourth his age. For sheer righteous fury, there's nothing like him.

The rest of the film, though, is positively sugary. Kowalski becomes a reluctant father figure to Thao and his precocious sister, Sue (Ahney Her), whom he calls "zipperhead" and "dragon lady," respectively. The blatant racism is played for laughs, but it's also very real: Kowalski may not like your kind, but you're OK.

In the end, "Gran Torino" can't quite decide what to be - a family film punctuated by violence and profanity? - but Eastwood's charisma goes a long way toward holding it together.

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