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Gran Torino

1/22/2010, reviewed by Amanda Evans

Walt Kowalski is a man from a bygone age and after his wife dies, all he has left is his 1972 Gran Torino. His boys have grown and gone leaving plenty of hard feelings to go around. A veteran of the Korean War, he faces his prejudices as one by one the houses around his fill up with Hmong (Asian) immigrants. Then Sue, the smart and sassy young lady next door befriends him and he finds himself mentoring her misdirected younger brother, Thao. Suddenly Walt is not alone anymore and his life takes a direction he never would have guessed. Ending with a Christ-like sacrifice, this movie made me appreciate how God uses us—despite our faults, mistakes, and sins—to accomplish His purposes.

While the themes were excellent, we found parts of the plot to be quite contrived and some of the symbolism seemed a bit cliche. As a result this movie did not get full marks, but we still would highly recommend it. On a cautionary note, there is strong language throughout and a couple brief scenes contain some gore.

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