Oh, Baby!

Rating: 2/10 (16 June 2010)

Crap. Plain and simple, and it doesn't matter how many morons think this is the finest film ever. I will give Eastwood a little credit - just a little - for knowing how to shoot a scene. He really ought to, given his career. But I do not at all understand how he's been elevated to the status of 'brilliant director', especially since his films are plagued by dreadful clichés and just plain idiot story points. You know what this is about. No need to dredge that up again. However, nothing screams more about how inept Eastwood is than the fact that it feels like half this movie is devoted to Swank's bedridden misery. It is so, so overdone that it undercuts the power that might have been there, settling instead to force tears from a sheer and relentless pounding in of the nightmare scenario. On the plus side, Swank is OK. Eastwood does what he always did, which is play nothing. And I believe this movie comes midpoint in Morgan Freeman's career as the weary, wise Black man. Would somebody give this guy a job in a comedy? Please?