Gran Illusions

SAW GRAN TORINO. It is by no means an incredible movie, but it sure is an interesting one, and therefore quite enjoyable. I will also say, since the press reports seem to be making a lot out of screenwriter Nick Schenk's contention that Eastwood didn't change a single word of the screenplay in the shooting, that that makes sense, because the overall effect is a very writerly movie.

The resonance of the ending is set up right at the beginning of the picture, and the essential beats of information you need to know are doled out through the movie quite cannily. Because they're in the middle of scenes where other interesting stuff is going on, you don't spend the brainpan power putting together exactly what the action of the third act is going to be. It's all sleight of hand, all the time.

Looking back on it, the ending is fairly easy to figure out. But you don't. Or at least I didn't, because you are swept up by some pretty engaging characters. Yet when you think back on it, the ending is clean and resonant, and directly follows everything Clint Eastwood's character has said and done through the whole movie. You are given clues right up until the ending is laid out before you -- but you don't put it together. This is what we call 'good screenwriting.'

Ok, to be serious. There will probably be people who take issue with Eastwood's performance, which is pitched directly in the line of every cranky old man you've ever seen commited to film. (He actually gets to deliver the line "Get off my lawn!" to a bunch of kids.) But the growling man is justified, as is the talking to himself, by the presence of his dog or simply by his obvious loneliness.

So you've got a good flawed character. Then you add a world most of us don't really know much about...the Hmong people and their customs. Then you stir in characters who are not cardboard, but who are just off a bit, as people are in life. Whether it's Sue, the next door neighbor that first starts the thaw, or the Priest who looks like he's fourteen, there are such interesting character dynamics going on that the very, very simple story has room to just unfold. There are no unnecessary notes or complications. As in most Eastwood films, everything is spare. You don't see anything you don't need to see. It all adds up.

We sometimes have the impulse to make things flashy or gussy them up. The old lipstick on a pig trick. We're forever doing that in Canada. Getting lost in our symbols, and disappearing up our own behinds.

Gran Torino is a yarn. And a good solid one. And if you're struggling with creating a nuanced character, or a complete arc, or even beats that drive to an inevitable turning point and resolution, this is a movie that has all that stuff out there for you to see, without a lot of paint or accoutrement. There's nothing flashy about this film, and it's also kind of timeless. This film could have been made anytime in the last thirty years.

But in an era of explosions and CG soullessness, and impenetrable art house douchebaggery, it's kind of refreshing to see this: a movie movie. A solid double, that sets out to tell a story about interesting people and delivers that and only that.

And I hate to say it, but I would say the bulk of that good feeling comes from a script that was well thought out, and executed, and a Star and Director who had the confidence to see that, and just shoot the story.

Imagine that.