pretty good, not great

Rating: 7/10 (22 March 2005)

Eastwood's scenes with Morgan Freeman are funny and touching, and Hilary Swank does a fine job of acting. But there are several major flaws. First, Clint Eastwood simply is not an accomplished visual artist, as he would have to be to hold our interest through an entire film the color of celery. Second, there are several problems with pacing. In the first half, the training process is slow, which is fine, then the one-round fights are abrupt, which is disconcerting. The second half is also quite slow for the first several sequences, which is also fine, but the transition to the climax (never fear, no spoiler) comes abruptly, which nearly ruins the picture. Third, Director Eastwood gives a preposterously large number of closeups to Actor Eastwood. Still, much of the movie is good, even if it was clearly the wrong choice for Best Picture.