Wow!

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2005)

I give this 9 stars out of 10.
I usually do not give most movies anything above 7 because they just do not deserve it. Movies that are 8, 9, 10 have two things in common: great story and great performance. Every year, only a handful of movies, if at that, I believe deserve a score of 8 or above. The reason why I am discussing this is because I have friends who will be receiving their Academy ballots for the upcoming Oscar Awards and I hope some of them will give their vote to this movie.
This movie is simply superb! Well written and very good performance. I cannot single out one person as standing out over others in this movie. Perhaps it is because you have three really good actors and actress who perform their craft so well that it seems effortless when you see them on the screen.
The story! I mean, when I first heard the premise of this movie, I was simply turned off by it and did not watch it when it first came out in theaters. Big mistake. The saying, you cannot judge a book by its cover, is so true here.
The movie is about a young woman (Hilary Swank) from a poverty background whose dream is to become a female boxer. She wants to train under a veteran trainer (Clint Eastwood) but he does not want to train her at first. The boxing gym's janitor (Morgan Freeman) gives her boxing advice so that she can train properly. Eventually, her perseverance wins out and the veteran trainer takes her under his tutelage. Things go well until tragedy strikes which causes the characters to evaluate what is truly important in their life.
If this was simply a boxing story, I would give it no more than 6 stars. Thankfully it is not. Kudos to Rope Burns, F.X. Toole, and Paul Haggis, in bringing this story into creation. Further Kudos for director Clint Eastwood...the man is simply a juggernaut of talent.
Seeing movies like this really makes all those other bad movies that I had watched throughout the year, bearable.