Mo cuishle

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2016)

For much of Million Dollar Baby Eastwood has convinced us this is a sports film, a boxing drama where the protagonist will encounter some challenges but eventually overcome them and emerge the victor both in and out of the ring. Any boxing fan would not be fooled. The bouts are obviously glamourised for the big screen, and the shaky grittiness that the camera affords them does not entirely legitismise the sequences. The is boxing from a video game level; every swing is a massive arc that must be ducked under, every dramatic headshot heightened in slow motion, every fight ending in a KO. Maggie begins to win so often and so easily that we are peering around the corner for her title fight where things will be a little different.
But then the story takes an abrupt turn, and where she was only moments from championship success, that all falls away horribly in an incident that leaves her paralysed and worse. The fighter who had once ruled the ring and world, now with only one leg, a blow of cruel irony. The abject conditions that she is left in (not to mention the attitude and intentions of her family, who are one- dimensional and serve only to exacerbate her demise) forces the proud Maggie to realise that she would rather be dead than so utterly miserable, never to step foot in the ring again.
This is a familiar tune, of course. Eastwood would later make an almost exact carbon copy in Gran Torino - the weathered, jaded old man taking on another beaten down youth and finding the experience life- changing and eye-opening, by excavating the layers of age, masculinity and conservative thoughts. But Eastwood has always managed to approach it a little differently, and go just beyond breaking the initial preconceptions of his grumpy character. Here, everything is mirrored within the past, which Freeman's voice-over additionally adds his own spin on the experiences. The events are marred by a guilt that doesn't surface until very late in the film, but then becomes such a heartbreaking influence.
It is easy to deride what may seem like a piece of propaganda on the issue of assisted suicide. But those who do so are missing the point. The film is not about her rights, but rather about Frankie's choice. The past two he had guarded over have left with scars both physical and emotional, and so he becomes hell bent on not letting a third die. He has taken her all the way to the top, and to let her go would be unthinkable. But the film (and Maggie) begs for him to throw away his redemption so that her suffering may end. To do so in his eyes would be not only a religious sin but also a moral one - failure which would haunt him until the end of his days. What a magnificently agonising conflict this is. It is always a tragedy when a father must bury their children.