The problem with Gran Torino quite simply is that it's an awful movie and I seem to be the only one who realizes it. Gran Torino was horrible... let me repeat that, HORRIBLE. The acting was terrible, the plot was boring, the characters were generic and lacked any level of complexity, and the writing reminded me of a bad student screenplay I read a couple years ago in a class. It was like it was written, produced, and directed by a bunch of old men who have completely lost touch with reality.
On numerous occasions I found myself laughing out loud at the sad, embarrassing attempts at acting (like the scene with the "hoodlums" on the street corner, where Walt (Eastwood) is attempting to teach Thao how to talk like a man, or when Thao flips out at the top of the basement stairs). And this criticism includes everyone. Eastwood easily gives the best performance in the film but even his effort is lacking at times. Maybe it's not entirely his fault though as the poorly written dialogue is some of the worst I've seen in a serious film in a long time.
The pacing is notoriously slow. I have never felt so impatient while watching a film as I did with this one. The plot is more like a series of scenes from somebody's life who just isn't all that interesting than an actual story. This script needed to go through about five more revisions to fix these issues but apparently it was good enough for Clint.
I never walk out of a movie theater but I was damn close on this one. The only reason I stuck around was to see how much worse it could get. To my relief the ending was the best part but that's the only thing that kept me from demanding a refund for my ticket. When the credits finally rolled I sat there in that half empty movie theater with my mouth open in shock. I didn't know what to think. I felt like I had been cheated and lied to by the producers and the general public alike who made me think this was going to be something worthwhile.
And what really gets me is that people like it! People actually enjoy this atrocity and consider it an excellent piece of cinema! Many people, smart people who I respect very much and consider great friends, have told me they thought it was wonderful; Roger Ebert gave it 3 1/2 stars; and on imdb.com it is the 76th highest rated movie of all time with an 8.4/10.
The overwhelming support for this film has left me more confused than I was when I first heard about sex on the playground in second grade, (“you pee in the girl,” I was told.) I have been searching for reasons why everyone loves this so much and I simply don't understand it. One of the problems is that anything with Clint Eastwood's name on it is going to automatically get special attention because he's an "American icon," But surely this can't be enough to sway the entire world into believing Gran Torino is a good movie, because it most certainly is not.
I know I'm in the minority here, but come on. Has the whole world lost its mind or is it me?
