Good movie ruined by unbelievability *SPOILERS*

Rating: 6/10 (21 March 2005)

After leaving the theater last night, I didn't know whether I enjoyed the movie, or had a blah feeling about it.
The premise of the movie, on the whole was good. Swank, Eastwood and Freeman all played believable, likable characters. The "feel" of the movie wasn't all that different than Mystic River, a lot of washed out colors, and very stark.
But like Mystic River, There were points of the movie that were beyond belief, and made me lose feeling for the movie.
First off, Swank's family is shallow and clichéd. Redneck family, trailer park, teenage sister has a baby, brother just got out of prison, momma is leeching off welfare and when "Pa" was alive, he loved his dog. The Rednack Royal Flush. Not only were they clichés, they were totally unlikeable, even as villains. I don't know if this is the overacting, or just the overall shallowness of their character development, but the scenes with them detracted from the film as a whole.
Second is the boxing scenes. Now I won't say it wasn't unexpected that she quickly rose through the ranks, as almost every movie involving sports involves the little guy rising to the top (and usually winning), but the scenes where she is fighting are unbelievable on a few levels. I believe most of which has to do with poor direction and camera placement.
Almost all of the punches thrown look very obviously like staged punches. I didn't wince when punches were landing, because none of the punches looked like they were landing. It all looked more fake than Walker Texas Ranger.
In addition to this, during the boxing scenes in which they showed a significant portion of the crowd, they were usually looking very goofy. I'd sit there and look at how poorly the extras were being directed, and then I'd wonder why I was getting that long of a view at extras with no obvious acting skills. Aside from the Irish folk in her first British fight, the crowd was simply annoying.
And much as been said about the final fight, and how it was unbelievable, and that fight would have been called. No doubt.
My final note will deal with the hospital scenes. The only part about these that bothered me, was the "Win One For The Gipper"-ish talks between Swank and Eastwood. "Bawsss, I won't walk again will I?" blah blah blah. The scene as a whole was dragged on too long, and with all the media it has gotten about the assisted suicide, I wanted to kill myself by how long it dragged on.
So I gave it a 6 out of 10. Get rid of the clichés and unbelievability, and it'd be an 8.