Hits The Spot

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2006)

With a face seemingly hewn from Mount Rushmore, Clint Eastwood is as much part of the iconic landscape of American cinema as the titular letters on the Hollywood hills. Unlike that signpost his appeal is rather more than superficial. There are few more successful reinventions in tinsel-town. It could be argued, indeed, that as a producer and director he is far more interesting than he ever was as an action-hero leading man. I suppose this shouldn't be surprising, as his earliest directorial effort, 1971's 'Play Misty For Me', made when he was one of the most bankable stars in the world, is (though overlong) an effective, intelligent and genuinely unsettling thriller  nicely paced and relying on a carefully crafted suspense rather than standard shock-tactics. It's easy to forget just how many films he has directed  twenty four in all  ranging from run-of-the-mill studio fare like 'The Eiger Sanction', 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' and 'Sudden Impact' to more ambitious and intellectually engaging offerings like 'White Hunter, Black Heart', 'Unforgiven', 'Bird' and the splendid 'Mystic River' (one of my favourite films of 2003). Oddly, given that two of those films have won 'Best Film' and 'Best Director', we still think of him principally as an actor (in which field, one should also note, he has improved considerably in later life). In maturity he's shown that he has something to say. Not only that, he says it with force and subtlety. Given his own oft-expressed right-wing sentiments his filmic approach to issues of personal ethics (as opposed to public morality) is refreshingly ambiguous: his characters' opinions, dilemmas and life-choices are their own to make, rather than being determined by middle-American public consensus.
In 'Million Dollar Baby' Eastwood eschews the bright lights of the ring for a muted palette of shadowy greys and browns, and this carefully toned visual approach extends to the plot and performances. We are told just enough about the characters to care about them, and are shown just enough in the boxing ring to capture the energy and determination of his principal players. As in 'Mystic River' his interest seems to dwell more on the cause and consequence of a particular action than the action itself.
This is nowhere better exemplified than in the presence of Morgan Freeman. Freeman actually does very little  his character existing on the fringes of the main events of the film - but does it superbly well, his subtle understatement more effectively commanding the camera (and the emotions of the audience) than the histrionics of any number of current leading men. Eastwood has the same emotional authority.
Hilary Swank is also quite excellent. I have yet to be disappointed by her  even in studio toss like the abominable actioner 'The Core'. Her turn in 'Boys Don't Cry' was astonishingly instinctive and direct, and the near disillusionment of her earnest, optimistic policewoman in 'Insomnia' was utterly convincing. Here one cannot help to be swept up and carried off in the wake of her character's indefatigability. Obviously, given the nature of her role, her performance is by far the most physical in the movie, but she has learned from her co-stars that less-is-more, that more sincere emotion can be conveyed by what chooses not to do on screen.
Subtle and deceptively complex. .