Three of the best performances on film

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2007)

Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) is a boxing trainer whose daughter is painfully estranged from his life. He doesn't take risks with his fighters, he's calculated and protective; leaving him less than successful at his art.
Maggie Fitzgerald (Hillary Swank) is a wannabe boxer, with an remarkable and unshakable focus on success; but her age is against her. Her family are less than supportive of her ambitions, and they are disrespectful to her in-spite of her desire to do the best by them.
When Frankie begrudgingly agrees to teach Maggie, they learn to share a common feeling of fulfilment, and find the sense of family that they have both lost, in each other.
Morgan Freeman plays an integral part in the story, his is Dunn's helping hand in the gym, while also being his council and his guide; but he is also the narrator of the story, in a very similar manner to the one used in the Shawkshank Redemption.
Eastwood's direction is sublime, again he proves his knowledge of what a film needs to truly tell a story and compel an audience. All of the support characters are interesting, sometimes funny, but always well portrayed; the story itself is excellent, it has power and passion, and if it fails to provoke your emotions then i'm afraid you may in fact be dead.
What completes this masterpiece is the performances of the leads players -
Eastwood is typically brilliant, he's inspiring and impossible to take yours eyes off.
Freeman is on top form, he's faultless and plays the voice of reason and rationality throughout the film.
And finally Swank, she is simply awesome in this role, her physical ability as a boxer is astounding enough, but when coupled with her exemplary acting talent, she commands the screen in every scene with ease - Awesome
Whatever your expecting in this film, it won't fail to move you or impress you; it's a masterpiece 10/10