Gran Torino

It is awful that Hollywood waits until the end of the year to release its good movies--the kind of movies that eventually show up in the Oscar nominations list.  We then have to squeeze in so many movies into a very short time period before they disappear from the cinema halls--yes, we can watch them on DVDs later, but there is something special about watching the movies in a big theater with a bunch of others.

So, this time it was Gran Torino.  

For the most part, it was a neat movie.  But, at many places, it was stilted and put-on.  It did not have the kind of nuances that Eastwood played with in Million Dollar Baby, even though there were plenty of opportunities.  The old man's shift to tolerating and liking his Hmong neighbors was quite sudden, compared to the personality we were made to understand.  

I liked the way the movie ended, though it would have been better if the storytelling had involved a little bit more of the character being introspective--the nuances that I miss.  

Later, as I was driving back home, I thought that maybe the movie was the right one for the times for another reason: the "big three" are still stuck in the years of the Gran Torino, while the auto market itself had moved on to Toyotas, Hondas, and Hyundais!