Maybe, "Thousand Dollar Baby?"

Rating: Null/10 (24 January 2005)

I see more than 100 movies a year in the theaters, and with all the over-hype of this, I expected something truly great. Well, if you read through all these reviews, it'll explain the plot, so I won't waste time and re-do it, but I will say this...this film is a major disappointment. Considering Eastwood's last, great film, Mystic River, I expected something in that caliber. There is nothing in this film that holds up to Mystic. No, this film is not a complete loss, it does have good moments, but no great, or significant moments. It's all huff and bluff, but nothing more. The performances are fine, but not spectacular. And the script has to be one of the poorest scripts of a major film this year. It is juvenile and amateurish and far from the caliber Eastwood should be working with. It takes from classic great films like "Raging Bull" and "Shawshank' to name a few, but adds nothing to them and can't even match the brilliance of either of those truly classic films. Eastwood should have known better, but this is obviously a director out of his league and not fully comprehending what he wanted to do or say. When the narration fails under the weight of the great Morgan Freeman, you know you are in trouble. Swank does well, but her role is not terribly complex. I think back to the great Imelda Staunton, in 2004's Best Film "Vera Drake" .Now that was great acting!! And a truly great film. This film will receive a lot of Oscar noms and probably win some, but it's a sad commentary when a film like this is so over-rated and people seem to buy into it. Roger Ebert called this, the best film of the year, but he, like so many others, seem to be star struck and not really paying close attention to details, script, plotting or what is on the screen. I liked this film, well enough, don't mis-understand me. I'd give it a "B" on a scale from A-F. But "B" is hardly what I expect from Eastwood, and far from what I expected reading all these over-praising reviews. I have the real sense that many viewers, who listen to the hype, will leave the theater sad, disappointed, and wondering what all the chatter was all about. So do I.