Synopsis: Walt Kowalski, an iron-willed veteran living in a changing world, is forced by his immigrant neighbors to confront his own long-held prejudices. The people he once called his neighbors have all moved or passed away, replaced by Hmong immigrants, from Southeast Asia, he despises. Resentful of virtually everything and everyone he sees, Walt is just waiting out the rest of his life, until the night his teenage neighbor Thao tries to steal his prized ’72 Gran Torino, under pressure from Hmong gang-bangers. But Walt stands in the way of both the heist and the gang, making him the reluctant hero of the neighborhood-especially to Thao’s mother and older sister, Sue, who insist that Thao work for Walt as a way to make amends. Though he initially wants nothing to do with these people, Walt eventually gives in and puts the boy to work, setting into motion an unlikely friendship that will change both their lives.

Review: Gran Torino is a film that will amuse, anger and ultimately move you – due in large part to Clint Eastwood’s sheer magnum force.

Story: Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is an angry, racist ex-Marine – recently widowed and living alone with his dog in his old neighborhood, now overrun with mostly Asian gangs. When the next door youth, a Hmong teen named Thao (Bee Vang) tries to steal his beloved Gran Torino, he strikes up a relationship with the boy that profoundly changes both. As Thao and his sister, Sue Lor (Ahney Her) are threatened by gang members, Walt springs into action and sets out to clean up the neighborhood, using his gun and anything else at his disposal. Meanwhile, his son (Brian Haley) and daughter-in-law (Geraldine Hughes) show up trying to convince Dad that it is time to move away from the ever-changing suburb he has lived in for so many decades and try a retirement community, a prospect Walt will have nothing to do with.

Acting: Eastwood gives the performance of a lifetime in Gran Torino. You will be reminded of everything that has made him a major star for five decades and astonished at the remarkable new challenges he sets for himself – even in the sunset of a stellar screen career. Even though Kowalski’s language and attitudes verge on the Archie Bunker mentality, Eastwood’s dry delivery of such offending lines actually elicits more laughter than outrage. It’s almost as if we are looking at what “Dirty” Harry Callahan might have been like in retirement. His humanity is eventually allowed to shine through, and it’s the journey that the actor takes with this character that makes Torino so worthwhile. Amazingly, Eastwood has never won an Oscar for acting but Gran Torino might change things. Of the young newcomers, Vang and Her are sweetly convincing and good foils for Walt’s crankiness.

Direction: As usual, Clint Eastwood the director paces the drama in a leisurely manner, letting things unfold in its own due time. More than any other recent film he’s directed, including his most recent film Changeling, Gran Torino seems defiantly old fashioned in its storytelling. Reportedly, Clint didn’t change a word of first-time screenwriter Nick Schenk’s script and that does lend itself to some awkward moments, particularly in scenes with the neighbors. Clint has always been interested in different aspects of the race issues in America and here uses a disgruntled Marine to express what is simmering below the surface in many pockets of American life. Although younger audiences may find the film’s rhythms rather slow, the ultimate payoff is huge, and Clint fans are likely to eat it up.

Bottom Line: Hollywood.com rated this film 3 1/2 stars.

Review: Revolutionary Road is a Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf for a new generation – a magnificent dramatic explosion with the kind of sheer force we haven’t seen on screen in years.

Story: Novelist Richard Yates tried for years to bring his 1961 story of marital trouble in ’50s suburbia to the screen but died before seeing it finally come to fruition in the form of this scorching adaptation by writer Justin Haythe. April (Kate Winslet) and Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) are young newlyweds, living what appears to be the ideal life in Connecticut in the 1950s. He has a nice job, she is a mother of two with dreams of an acting career. But beneath the surface is a lingering dissatisfaction with their lives; Frank is having an affair with an office worker (Zoe Kazan), and April is terribly unhappy with the way her life is turning out. They engage in ferocious arguments, constantly disproving the idea they are the perfect couple. One day April decides the answer to all their problems is to move to Paris and start over. But when the plan is put in motion, each spouse is pushed to extremes – one to escape whatever the cost, the other to save all they have, no matter the compromises.

Acting: Revolutionary Road’s brilliant ensemble ignites and delivers on just about every level imaginable. Kate Winslet, who seemingly can do no wrong these days, is heartbreakingly good as a housewife who foreshadows the feminist movement. Her April is an ambitious, confused woman tragically living a couple of beats ahead of her time. Leonardo DiCaprio gives his finest film performance as a man who knows he is not living up to his potential but seems to be in a state of denial trying, almost pathetically, to keep what’s left of his marriage and family together. It’s the subtext and unspoken words between them that really give power to these tremendously effective performances. After the first 10 minutes, you will be so mesmerized by their raw, naked acting you will forget you are watching the two young stars who first appeared together in Titanic a decade earlier. Kathy Bates as a cheerful real estate agent with her own family problems is also quite good, as is Michael Shannon, as her disturbed grown son who seems to know more about the sad state of the Wheelers home life than anyone realizes. He should be a frontrunner for the supporting actor Oscar if there is any justice. Also blending in nicely are Kathryn Hahn and David Harbour as neighbors who are the polar opposite of Frank and April.

Direction: Sam Mendes, who won an Oscar for directing yet another stinging view of suburbia with his Oscar-winning American Beauty, does another great job of bringing out the essence of what Yates says about a generation hiding behind a façade of happiness but living on the cusp of great, profound social change. Mendes lets long dialogue scenes play out, packing them with riveting moments. His filmmaking style should be savored for the insights it provides and the emotional challenges it presents. Mendes also manages to get an extraordinary portrayal of suburban angst from his real-life wife Winslet. Not since Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton battled so brazenly in 1966’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf has there been a wounded couple’s marriage so deeply and poignantly exposed on screen.

Bottom Line: Hollywood.com rated this film 3 1/2 stars.