Gran Torino Launches with High Praise from Top Critics

While it seemed like Gran Torino was set to receive mixed reviews, many of the major papers have fallen in love with it and with Clint all over again. The NY Times’ Manohla Dargis writes:

That probably sounds heavier than I mean, but “Gran Torino” doesn’t go down lightly. Despite all the jokes — the scenes of Walt lighting up at female flattery and scrambling for Hmong delicacies — the film has the feel of a requiem. Melancholy is etched in every long shot of Detroit’s decimated, emptied streets and in the faces of those who remain to still walk in them. Made in the 1960s and ’70s, the Gran Torino was never a great symbol of American automotive might, which makes Walt’s love for the car more poignant. It was made by an industry that now barely makes cars, in a city that hardly works, in a country that too often has felt recently as if it can’t do anything right anymore except, every so often, make a movie like this one.

Kenneth Turan after the cut.

And Turan, writing for the LA Times:

As this closeness grows, “Gran Torino” will start to feel familiar and create concern that this is all there is to the film. It is familiar, but only to a point. Suddenly, that point is past and much more serious questions come up, questions of responsibility, of vengeance, of the efficacy of blood for blood. These questions seem to take Kowalski himself by surprise. It’s almost as if Clint Eastwood all at once finds himself in a different movie than either he, or us, really expected. But if the last few years have proved anything, it’s that anywhere Eastwood is, movie audiences are wise to follow.

There is something John McCain American about the film, which makes it quite timely for right now in so much that times have changed dramatically and overnight as Obama has become President. The Eastwood character indicates, perhaps, this kind of change from racist old white guy to someone who feels like we really are the melting pot we pretend to be. But I remain a bit baffled as to why no critic seems to directly deal with the idea of justice being wrought by the apparently only capable person in the film, a Korean war vet (aka old white guy) – he has never felt the need to make politically correct films but if you’re Spike Lee you gotta be hurting about now. This perhaps surprises me the most about the critical reception of the film, and is a great example of why critics still matter in the Oscar race.¬† We don’t, we never have, done this in a vacuum.

That makes me wonder about the film’s ultimate trajectory, whether it will be a major player or not. Unlike Letters from Iwo Jima and Million Dollar Baby it hasn’t been winning the critics’ awards. For instance, if the LA Film critics had chosen it over Wall-E, all bets would be off and this would be a major best picture contender. On the other hand, these latest reviews are enough to give Warner Bros. something to use for their campaign, which would then be in direct competition with The Dark Knight.

Eastwood’s acting nomination seems secure, along with a screenplay nod. Can it crack Best Director and Picture?