Film Review: Million Dollar Baby
The finest major studio film of the year, "Million Dollar Baby" is a release from Warner Brothers Pictures. Director Clint Eastwood brought us a similarly affecting film last year in "Mystic River" garnering Oscars for his stars Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. This film will bring nominations, if not wins, for its director (Eastwood) and stars: Mr. Eastwood, Hillary Swank, and a one-eyed Morgan Freeman.
What is at the outset a simple boxing film built of sweat and grit, rather carefully becomes one of the more emotionally balanced pieces I have seen in quite some time. Remarks in other reviews have drawn comparisons to "The Shawshank Redemption". This rings true not only because Mr. Freeman is the honest and dry narrator, but also because it is a "shop" piece, it looks intimately, if romantically, at the world of boxing. State prison was given similar treatment in "Shawshank".
But let us leave comparisons to other films there, "Million Dollar Baby" is not destined for so many countless showings on the TNT, it is palateable to a much more patient and connective viewer. Though there are elements of the film that could easily slide toward the realm of cliche', it ultimately redeems itself in spades.
Hillary Swank, in her strongest performance since "Girls Don't Cry", is a western Missouri hick who knows she is white trash and only wants to be a fighter. Eastwood is a gruff boxing trainer running a grey downtown L.A. boxing gym called the Hit Pit. When he is not bantering dry with his parter Scrap (Freeman) he reads Keats and is trying to learn Galic. A familiar "come on coach train me...I don't train girls" sort of relationship ensues.
Once we are beyond the compulsory period of resistence and stubborness that seems to be a prerequisite of an Eastwood character, we find a quietley broken man in need of everything his relationship with Swank can provide. We are in a world of men with short names and buzz-cuts, there are cigars and hats, people called Sal, Frankie, and Scrap. Because of the overall simplicity of the film, any further plot description is counterproductive to a viewing.
There are several interesting Catholic threads to the film; an honest and acerbic priest, questions of guilt and destination, and gold crosses galore. For the most part implications are left (refreshingly) to the viewer. The mellow piano score of the film is from Mr. Eastwood as well, who, at 74, is an excellent classical and blues pianist, not to mention one of the most accomplised movie people of our time. "Million Dollar Baby" is his 25th film as a Director, his 58th as an actor, and will be his third Oscar, and fifth Golden Globe nominee for direction.
Rated PG-13 for blood, broken noses, and general intensity.
What is at the outset a simple boxing film built of sweat and grit, rather carefully becomes one of the more emotionally balanced pieces I have seen in quite some time. Remarks in other reviews have drawn comparisons to "The Shawshank Redemption". This rings true not only because Mr. Freeman is the honest and dry narrator, but also because it is a "shop" piece, it looks intimately, if romantically, at the world of boxing. State prison was given similar treatment in "Shawshank".
But let us leave comparisons to other films there, "Million Dollar Baby" is not destined for so many countless showings on the TNT, it is palateable to a much more patient and connective viewer. Though there are elements of the film that could easily slide toward the realm of cliche', it ultimately redeems itself in spades.
Hillary Swank, in her strongest performance since "Girls Don't Cry", is a western Missouri hick who knows she is white trash and only wants to be a fighter. Eastwood is a gruff boxing trainer running a grey downtown L.A. boxing gym called the Hit Pit. When he is not bantering dry with his parter Scrap (Freeman) he reads Keats and is trying to learn Galic. A familiar "come on coach train me...I don't train girls" sort of relationship ensues.
Once we are beyond the compulsory period of resistence and stubborness that seems to be a prerequisite of an Eastwood character, we find a quietley broken man in need of everything his relationship with Swank can provide. We are in a world of men with short names and buzz-cuts, there are cigars and hats, people called Sal, Frankie, and Scrap. Because of the overall simplicity of the film, any further plot description is counterproductive to a viewing.
There are several interesting Catholic threads to the film; an honest and acerbic priest, questions of guilt and destination, and gold crosses galore. For the most part implications are left (refreshingly) to the viewer. The mellow piano score of the film is from Mr. Eastwood as well, who, at 74, is an excellent classical and blues pianist, not to mention one of the most accomplised movie people of our time. "Million Dollar Baby" is his 25th film as a Director, his 58th as an actor, and will be his third Oscar, and fifth Golden Globe nominee for direction.
Rated PG-13 for blood, broken noses, and general intensity.
posted by . at 11:51 PM
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