Boxing Clever

Rating: Null/10 (17 January 2005)

This movie has just opened in England and if a better one opens before the end of 2005 (and I say this with A Very Long Engagement waiting in the wings) then 2005 will take its place beside the vintage year of 1939. In the middle of the twentieth century three outstanding boxing movies were released, Champion, The Set-Up and Body and Soul, three movies, three heavyweights, Kirk Douglas, Robert Ryan, John Garfield, but Million Dollar Baby is better than all three put together - and, please, don't write in and say what about Raging Bull; I could put on 30 lbs but does that make me an actor? A REAL actor can ACT heavy, so enough with overrated deNiro already. If anybody told me I'd be moved to tears by a Clint Eastwood movie I would have thought they were barking but here I am with a soaking handkerchief and a slightly punch-drunk expression. As I write this the news is just in that Swank and Eastwood have just picked up Best Actress and Best Director Golden Globes and that's what I call justice. If Imelda Staunton's over-hyped Vera Drake had eased out Swank it would have been the greatest travesty since Mick Jagger got a gong from the Queen. Other posters here have already covered the plot so all I can add is GREAT! GREAT! GREAT! 10/10