Really good sports movie

Rating: Null/10 (31 January 2005)

Clint Eastwood and Hillary Swank are both excellent (and deserving of their Oscar nominations) in Million Dollar Baby, a great sports movie that will be mentioned for decades to come when sportswriters make their annual lists of the best movies to see. Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn, a boxing trainer who doesn't like taking chances until he hooks up with Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank) an untrained waitress with a killer punch. Morgan Freeman, to a certain extent, reprises his role in The Shawshank Redemption by narrating the movie in a letter written to Dunn's daughter. Freeman is such a natural at this, however, that it enhances this film just as much as it did Shawshank. I guess once a decade isn't overkill. Eastwood directs a movie that looks to be going in a much different direction that it ends up going in, as excruciating decisions are left to be made by Frankie after an injury leaves Maggie paralyzed. Where I thought we were about to see Rocky VI, Million Dollar Baby becomes a throat-catcher in its third act, as we see classic tough-guy Eastwood ripped to shreds by his surrogate daughter. This scenario has been played before, but Eastwood and Swank put a whole new touch to it, and it turns Million Dollar Baby into one of the best of 2004.