Eastwood stands as a challenge to his conscience when he finds the correct answer in his heart

Rating: 10/10 (15 March 2006)

"Million Dollar Baby" is the story of three different characters Actually, two of them, Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) and Scrap Iron (Freeman) are pretty much mirror images of each other
Frankie owns a rundown Los Angeles gym where he trains up-and-comers His motto for his fighters is "protect yourself at all times." Scrap is an elderly ex-boxer who helps out around the gym and keeps Frankie company Frankie was the 'cut-man' in one of Scraps' fights that turned bad Frankie still feels he's partly to blame
But 31 year old Maggie (Hilary Swank) is totally different She works as a waitress but aspires to be a boxer She is so poor that she has to pick leftover meat off her customers' plates just to have the energy to keep going
Maggie needs boxing to make something of herself and gain respect When she first approaches Frankie, asking to be trained, he told her he never trains girls She continues to hang around and after much harassment he eventually changes his mind From there, we begin to feel some natural affinity between the twoTo say more would be to ruin a lovely, heartbreaking film carefully layered with surprises
Beneath "Million Dollar Baby," there is a love story A deep love story between two people with scars in their lives... Both are haunted by family problems Maggie's family, led by her opportunistic mother is alternately cruel and exploitative Frankie has an unloving daughter he writes to constantly, but his letters always returned unopened, unread and intact We never know what came between them
Eastwood handles his role with such ease that it's hard to judge whether his acting or directing is the greater accomplishment He stands as a challenge to his conscience when he finds the correct answer in his heart