Boxing film fails to deliver knockout punch

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 2005)

Clint Eastwood's role as boxing trainer Frankie Dunn is by far the best thing about "Million Dollar Baby". His gruff, gravelly portrayal gives the film its heart and soul. He earns our sympathy for his character, without lapsing into cloying sentimentality.
As boxer Maggie Fitzgerald, Hilary Swank is limited by the narrow range of her role to giving a one-note performance. I was not convinced that her character had sufficient motivation to escape the confines of her life as a waitress. Swank is more believable in her response to her trailer-trash family. She is generous and well-intentioned at first, hurt when her generosity is not appreciated, and incensed when she finds out what vultures her mother and siblings really are.
Margo Martindale is excellent as Maggie's mother Earline. She strikes exactly the right note in both of her scenes as a woman who cares more about welfare payments than the welfare of her flesh and blood.
As washed-up boxer Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupris, Morgan Freeman serves as little more than a chorus in this modern Greek tragedy. His voice-over provides expository material. In other words, Freeman tells us what the film should show us. This kind of exposition is deadly in a film, the opposite of what good screen writing and good cinema should be.
"Million Dollar Baby" earned Clint Eastwood an Oscar nomination as best actor and best director. He richly deserves the acting nod, but his directorial skills on this film are open to question.
Eastwood's craft gets in the way of the story instead of helping it along. The music in the final reel is too syrupy and saccharine. Too many scenes are cloaked in shadow, as if to remind us symbolically of the darkness that lurks in men's souls.
A well-crafted film is one where the craft is seamless and invisible. When we become overly conscious of the director's (or actor's) craft, it becomes obtrusive and distracting. It keeps us from entering the world of the film, being enthralled by the story told.
This flaw prevented me from buying into "Million Dollar Baby". The film did not move me, or draw me into its human drama, but left me a cold, distant bystander, an observer. "Million Dollar Baby" failed to deliver a knockout punch. I ended up feeling suckered instead.