More than a bit disappointed

Rating: Null/10 (9 March 2005)

Recently saw MDB (after all the awards, and I just can't see what all the fuss is about. It really baffles me. I found the film to be involving at times, but overall it didn't move me. Characters were written simplistically with very little provided to understand their motivations. The whole father/daughter element was obvious and hackneyed. The scenes with the priest and with Maggie's family were almost laughable they were so broad and unrealistic. The ending didn't flow with everything that lead up to it, and it simply wasn't effective. We don't really know enough about any of them to care about them in the way the film wants us to. On the plus side: performances were solid, if unspectacular, there were a few good lines, and some of the boxing was exciting. Overall though, it seemed like much ado about nothing. I haven't seen many movies this year, but just about all of them were better than Million Dollar Baby.