The story of this movie is Eastwood who once again proves his ability to handle directing stories virtually no other director in Hollywood today would even attempt. Additionally Clint once again proves that he's still got "it" as an actor. As the only known name in this film Eastwood has no problem shouldering the load and allows many of his inexperienced co-stars to shine most notable Ahney Her as the Hmong girl next door who manages to get past Walt's defenses.

The movie is a great story of a man who's time has passed except he refuses to become irrelevent and in the process manages to make a difference in peoples lives. Eastwoods transformation from crotchety racist old fart to caring crotchety slightly less racist old fart is totally believable and touching in its way. Eastwood and the family adopts pull off that most difficult of Hollywood magic. They make you believe they are real people with complex flaws and even more they make you care about what happens to them. There's virtually no suspension of belief in this film and it still manages to dazzle and draw a profound emotional response.

Finally the negatives, this isn't the movie you want to take a date or the whole family to. The movie is very unflinching and often blunt with it racial themes which some could find offensive. There's very little action, so if that's your thing this probably isn't the movie for you and the ending at least for me failed to deliver the full bang I thought it could have, but that's possibly because the setup is so good. It builds your expectations to an unrealistic level. Lastly I only gave this movie a 70 because in many ways it's a hard movie to enjoy because it makes you contemplate issues you probably would prefer not to and is not really the kind of movie you leave the theater feeling good about yourself from.