overrated movie which is predictable after the 2nd act.

Rating: 7/10 (14 October 2006)

I must say that I am really disappointed that this movie got the best picture Oscar. It starts as a promising movie, the opening act is wonderful. Maggie (Hilary Swank) is a young adult woman who is trying to be a professional boxer asking help from an old, experienced boxing coach Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood). Eddie (Morgan Freeman) is Frankie's right-hand and possibly the only one who really understands him. Frankie is haunted by guilt about something happened between him and his daughter in the past and he is reluctant to coach Maggie. But Maggie has been through many hardships and is not a quitter. She is determined to get where she wants and she is willing to do what others are not (actually this is from a sign in the gym they are working out: winners are willing to do what loser are not). Soon enough, she wins Frankie's heart and Frankie finally warms up to the idea of coaching a female boxer. Maggie, in a way, could be thought of as a "female Rocky" as she, too, is an underdog, someone who is poor, had many hardships but willing to fight until the end (only, unlike Rocky, it's a she). Then the championship games begin and after the 1st act is over, the movie takes a tumble. From then on, everything is downhill and very predictable. I can honestly say that I knew everything that was going to happen in the last 45 minutes of the movie. I could have walked out the theatre and wouldn't have missed a thing. Because everything that happened in the last act was just predictable. There was no room in the story for any improvement. It's like the plot has been decapacitated. It was very painful to watch. I felt all the buttons that the director was trying to push to activate emotions. They were just too obvious and in our face. Overall, this is not a bad movie but not good enough to win an Oscar.