rave review in World for Gran Torino

From Megan Basham in the 1/31 print version of World...

As Gran Torino’s Korean War vet Walt Kowalski, Eastwood offers us a thoroughly unlikable character that manages, even in his unrepentant racism, to win our favor....It’s not pretty, and neither is Walt, but he is made more so in that he doesn’t pull punches no matter what group he’s assaulting, even his own....

Eastwood clearly understands what his persona as an actor has meant to American cinema...But rather than merely imparting an exhilarating sense of justice, these trademark elements are also used to cast light on some uncomfortable questions: Is clinging to every bit of nostalgic Americana really patriotic, or is it sometimes exclusionary? Do some immigrants fail to assimilate because they don’t want to or because natural-born citizens fail to reach out to them? It is precisely because of his status as an icon of heartland masculinity that Eastwood is able to take on this sensitive subject with [so much] integrity...

Finally, a caveat:

Gran Torino unquestionably earns it’s R-rating with [numerable] obscenities and racial invective...But unlike the films of lesser directors, the language here is rarely window dressing....impossible to fully convey the spiritual evolution of the bitter, godless, and racist Walt Kowalski without making him sound, well, bitter, godless, and racist....