Million Dollar Baby Review
by Bob Bloom (bob AT bloomink DOT com)February 1st, 2005
MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2004) 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Clint Eastwood, Hilary
Swank, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel and Christina Cox. Music by Clint Eastwood.
Director of photography Tom Stern. Screenplay by Paul Haggis. Based on a short story from the collection "Rope Burns" by F.X. Toole. Directed by Clint Eastwood.
Rated PG-13. Running time: Approx: 132 mins.
Girlie, tough ain't enough, fight manager and trainer Frankie Dunn tells aspiring
boxer Maggie Fitzgerald near the beginning of Million Dollar Baby.
Those four words set the tone for the rest of this old-fashioned drama that delivers
a one-two combination of grit and determination followed by a roundhouse punch of heartbreak.
The movie, based on a short story by former cut man F.X. Toole, has been masterfully adapted by Paul Haggis, and wonderfully directed by Clint Eastwood, who
also stars as Dunn.
Dunn runs a broken-down old gym, The Hit Pit, in a back-alley neighborhood of Los
Angeles. His only friend, Scrap, an ex-boxer, lives and works there.
Not much talent hangs around Frankie's gym. The one real fighter Frankie trained
has deserted him because he felt Frankie was holding him back from a shot at a title
fight and the big money.
Frankie's mantra to his boxers in and out of the ring is simple: Always protect
yourself.
Frankie is a taciturn individual haunted by something in his past that has estranged
him from his daughter and compels him to attend Mass almost daily.
A determined Maggie walks into Dunn's gym with the goal of convincing him to train
her. She has seen the way he handles fighters and knows with his teaching she can
succeed.
Dunn turns her down flat. "I don't train girls," he says. Plus, at 30, she is too old to
begin the difficult task of learning the intricacies of the brutal sport.
But Maggie refuses to take no for an answer and continues her daily workout regimen at the gym, secretly encouraged by Scrap, who sees potential in her.
Maggie sees boxing as a way out of her dead-end life. A self-proclaimed dirt-poor
refugee from the Ozarks, Maggie works as a waitress, literally picking up scraps off
the table in order to save what little she earns.
She eventually wears Frankie down, and he begins training her. When she gets into
the ring, finally, she is unbeatable, battling her way through the ranks until she gets
her shot at the title.
Just when Maggie's life reaches its pinnacle, she is blind-sided by fate. Oscar-winner Hilary Swank hasn't done much since earning her statue for her fabulous performance as Brandon Teena in 1999's Boys Don't Cry.
But in Million Dollar Baby she has found another character another outsider
she can bring to life.
Swank's performance should win her a second Academy Award. She brings so much to Maggie, filling her canvas with a complete picture of who Maggie is and why she is
so driven to succeed.
Swank makes you root for Maggie; you admire her, wince when she is in pain, and
weep when the breaks go against her.
As he ages, Eastwood's acting just gets better and better. At a time when he no
longer has to prove anything to either the public or the film industry, he continues
to take chances and choose projects such as Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby
that are not guaranteed audience pleasers.
Eastwood's persona exudes integrity and it seeps into his portrayal of Frankie Dunn.
He is a man of convictions, unwilling to compromise when it really matters.
He creates a character with foibles and problems we never learned why Dunn and
his daughter no longer communicate but overall he is a decent man living by his
own code of righteous conduct.
As Scrap, Morgan Freeman creates a verbal sparring for Eastwood's Frankie. This
former boxer, forced from the ring after being blinded in one eye during a fight, is
Frankie's voice of reason, the one who forces him to confront his fears about training Maggie, and the individual who helps ease his conscience when life sucker
punches him in the gut.
The biting, but loving, banter between these two old pros alone is worth the price
of a ticket.
Eastwood tells his story in a straightforward manner; no fancy camera tricks or
angles. Simplicity is his mantra, and his no-frills, unadorned style of filmmaking is
well-suited for the subject matter.
If the movie has one drawback, it is in the presentation of Maggie's family. They are
portrayed as ignorant, trailer-dwelling white trash. Mom is an ingrate, upset that
Maggie has bought her a home because it could jeopardize her welfare status. Her
selfish younger sister cares for an out-of-wedlock baby, and her
good-for-nothing,
tattoo-laden, ex-con brother sees Maggie as a free-ride meal ticket.
That aside, Million Dollar Baby is one of the best films of the year, deserving of all
the Oscar nominations it has received. It will have you cheering, but like a brutal
15-rounder, will leave you emotionally spent by the final bell.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be
reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at [email protected]. Bloom's reviews also can be found at the Journal and Courier Web site: www.jconline.com
Other reviews by Bloom can be found at the Rottentomatoes Web site: www.rottentomatoes.com or at the Internet Movie Database Web site:
www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
More on 'Million Dollar Baby'...
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
