If you are looking for a good mix of action and drama this is a great film.

Rating: 7/10 (4 May 2014)

This film introduces a struggling thirty-one year old waitress named Maggie, played by Hillary Swank, who has a desire to make it big in the women's boxing arena. Her biggest obstacle is to convince Frankie, played by Clint Eastwood, to accept the position to train her to be a prize winning fighter. Frankie doesn't seem interested in this endeavor due to his past mistakes while training Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris played by Morgan Freeman. Eddie "Scrap" just happens to be Frankie's only real friend, who lives and works in the "Hit Pit", Frankie's rundown old gym in Los Angeles, California. Scrap noticed Maggie's potential and works on getting Frankie to forgive himself and give Maggie a chance.
I was drawn to watch this film because of the appearance that is was an action boxing film but it turned out that it was more dramatic verses action packed. I'm not into watching dramas, however, this film had a good balance of action scenes to keep my interest. The dramatic elements of the film were also interesting and added to the overall theme of getting Frankie to give himself another chance at training as well as letting Maggie have the opportunity to show the world what she is made of.
The storyline continues as Frankie trains Maggie and they develop a strong father-daughter bond. During this time Frankie begins to feel he has made the right choice in training Maggie because she turns out to perform very well. Frankie finds redemption from his inner demons and fears by watching Maggie doing what she loves, this reminds him of a relationship with his own daughter that he neglected to cultivate. Unfortunately as fate would have it, the story takes a dramatic turn for the worst and Frankie is again faced with making a moral decision at Maggie's request. This film's theme is similar to that of "The Karate Kid" where and older and wiser father figure takes a young naive apprentice under his wing. In this film, Frankie takes Maggie under his training "wing" to develop her natural skills into ones that will allow her to beat the odds and live her dream of being a prize fighter.
The use of the close up accessory lens in the gym office scene with Frankie and Scrap was a good example of how the cinematographer is able to focus in on the foreground on one side and background on the opposite side. This allowed the viewer to see Maggie's determination toward her training in the background while viewing the conversation between Frankie and Scrap in the foreground.
This film shows that in spite of your past failures life can give you opportunities to overcome inner struggles. It also proves that with hard work and determination anything is possible.