‘Gran Torino’, ‘The Unborn’ make unusual double-bill

By Zack McGhee | Monday, January 12, 2009, 08:05 PM

On Sunday, I took in a strange double-bill: The Unborn and Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino.

I have a soft spot for genre movies — I’m anxious to see My Bloody Valentine 3D, directed by the reliable Patrick Lussier, and The Uninvited, with Elizabeth Banks as an evil stepmother, for example. The Unborn begins as a below-average ghost movie in the style of The Ring, but it deteriorates into an absurd farce. After reaching its nadir — a tasteless retirement home chase — it culminates with an exorcism that abandons that religious ritual for a mindless fight scene. Talentless lead Odette Yustman gives a vacuous performance while the charming Meagan Good, who plays her token best friend, is criminally underused. All this while the most critical question goes unanswered: What’s Gary Oldman doing here?

Though I grew increasingly tired of The Unborn, it hardly seemed worthy of even the wittiest, most incisive criticism (not that I’m kidding myself) after seeing Gran Torino — a meaningful, complex portrait of contemporary America that also happens to be Eastwood’s best film in 15 years. To say it caught me by surprise would be the understatement of this admittedly young year. I plan to devote a much longer post to this remarkable film later in the week, after I’ve been able to take in a second viewing.

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