Didn't do it for me

Rating: Null/10 (22 January 2005)

The first 2/3 of the movie is wonderful -- quirky, warm and often funny -- and the acting is outstanding. But then it turns into a completely different film where it loses most of its credibility, and most of all just doesn't deliver the emotional payoff it is trying so hard to do. Two days after seeing it, I keep finding more annoying elements.
SPOILER -- SPOILER - SPOILER - SPOILER - SPOILER - SPOILER - SPOILER I agree with the other person who mentioned in a comment that the ending just doesn't flow from the rest of the movie. It's true that in real life, things sometimes happen out of nowhere, but in films we expect there to be a connection -- that events transpire not just because they can, but because they must, given what went before. In MDB, the central notion of "protecting oneself" gets an inordinate amount of screen time, yet for the "twist" to occur, the main characters have to completely forget it. Thus we have Frank (Clint Eastwood) zigzagging from not being able to protect his fighter (Morgan Freeman), overprotecting his fighter (Big Willy), and then both over- and under-protecting his fighter(Hilary Swank). Here Maggie is in a ring with a boxer known for fighting dirty, and neither she nor Frank seem to be particularly on the alert. The film also leaves dangling the whole concept as to whether Frank was wrong or right to be protective.
VERY BIG SPOILER - VERY BIG SPOILER - VERY BIG SPOILER My biggest problem with the film (and the reason I can't imagine the Holleywood community voting for it as best film come Oscars night) is that I couldn't accept Maggie's decision, nor Frank's decision to help her, in a world that just lost Christopher Reeve, who showed that even people in Maggie's condition can still do meaningful things with their lives. As a personal matter, I am sure that if I were in that position, I might also long to commit suicide, but knowing that people like Christopher Reeve have chosen to live life to the fullest despite extreme limitations, it's hard for me to emotionally get behind a character who isn't even willing to try (I'm certain I would view "Whose Life is it Anyway" less sympathetically if I saw it today.)
Not only was this major emotional component lacking for me, but some of the rest of the stuff was absolutely ludicrous. I almost laughed at the last scene with the family, given that under the circumstances, no attorney would fail to bring a notary along to ascertain the "mark" to be made was genuine. The whole scene was also completely over-the-top, in that it had already been established her family was selfish and uncaring.
This is definitely a movie that would have had a stronger and more honest emotional impact if it had stayed in its original vein and figured out a more subtle way to show the connection between Frank and Maggie than lapsing into melodrama.