Last half is hokey- entire review has spoilers

Rating: Null/10 (20 February 2005)

All movies tell a story, of course. Lots of films tell stories that are gritty and don't end well. But the movie should flow. The situations should not seem unreasonable to have occurred. The beginning was good- except for Morgan Freeman's annoying narrative. Needless and intrusive. Hilary Swank turns in to a very believable boxer, with the obligatory self-image problems caused by her trailer trash family. Pinning her hopes on boxing seems odd- beating other people to resolve her own demons, then symbolically adopting Eastwood as the curmudgeonly father figure giving her the only help and hope she has ever had. So far, so good. Never mind that in a real match, the opponent would have been D/Q'd with the first illegal elbow shot- we have an accident so freakish that it is almost believable. Then the mess begins- Swank can speak with a tracheotomy! A medical miracle in itself. She gets bedsores on her forearms- not on any pressure points. She gets her leg done in by something supposed to be either an infection or a clot- no one says for sure, but lop it off anyway. Okay, I'm a neurological nurse. But didn't Chris Reeve show anyone anything? I was so into the hokey medical stuff that I couldn't pay attention to the stupidity of the plot. Then someone *biggest spoiler here* unhooks a machine and no one comes after them for murder? I don't think so. Eastwood has really indulged himself. I couldn't believe how many people fell into this predictable, formulaic BS of an ending. It was creepy to think that Eastwood sat around planning this manipulative nonsense rather than actually finishing his film. When things get rough, cripple the heroine of the film and have a paternalistic manager take care of it. Then Morgan Freeman (after tolerantly dealing with a village idiot when he calls him the notorious N word) is allowed to become redemptive. He saves the white cracker boy twice. Nice touch (right) from Eastwood who does seem hung up still on throwing the occasional offensive word in and then making the victim a hero. Notice how Eastwood insults all southerners by giving southern accents to the people who are the idiots. Thanks, Clint. I was shocked at how crummy I thought the second half of this film was. I was so prepared to like it, and the first part was worth seeing.