A million dollar movie from a million dollar director.

Rating: Null/10 (3 March 2005)

It's tough to talk about this movie without giving away some things that would ruin it, but one thing is for certain, it's NOT absolutely NOT what you're seeing advertised by Warner Bros. in the theaters. No, it's not a story about boxing, it's not an action film with Clint Eastwood, and it's not a thriller.
It has elements of all of the above, but this film that is directed and stars Clint Eastwood is perhaps his most emotional, most mature, most heart-felt film of his career. Just before I went to go see the movie last week, I was on the phone with Roger Ebert who predicts that it will sweep the Oscar nominations and could possibly be the only film with double-digit nominations this year. He may be right. If that's not enough of an endorsement for you, the perhaps this delicate explanation of the film will suffice.
Swank is enthusiastic, overzealous and passionate in this role. She chomps into the part like a champion, and she does more than sweat to make this part believable every step of the way.
Eastwood tries to avoid her interest in boxing, and her yearning for him to manage her, so he shuffles her off to Eddie, who gives her tips about how to train.
Not wanting to give anything at all away, some things happen that make everyone's life change drastically, and the film takes a totally unexpected direction from the first third of the movie.
That being said, the third act of the film is perhaps the weakest because it lacks the dramatic punch of some of the earlier scenes. It's still dramatic, it's still tender and surprising, but for some reason it's the least satisfying in the film. It gets slow, schmaltzy and somewhat cliché, but hey, it's a movie.
Eastwood no longer needs to prove himself as a director, and after last year's "Mystic River" (which won Sean Penn and Tim Robbins a best actor and supporting actor nod) he has proved he can direct well. Rarely does a director like to act in his own movies, though, so seeing him do both is an exception.
7/10.