not a great film by any means (such hype!!)

Rating: Null/10 (7 February 2005)

First off, this is a good film, but not a great film. And it does not at all merit the amount of hoopla and attention that it's been getting. I don't know why it has received as much attention as it has. Probably because of its director Clint Eastwood who always garners the spotlight in any project he's involved in.
But this film is rather shallow. It doesn't get deep at all. And many of the scenes are contrived. And if you've ever written a screenplay before, you can see where certain sequences were put in to purposely add tension or conflict but it's contrived and does not feel natural. For example, the minor character, Danger, was obviously an artificial add-on to give the very sparse film a few more interesting characters to fill in the backdrop but he's nothing new or original or even genuine. And he was only necessary to create the subplot which had Morgan Freeman punch the living daylights out of a "punk" boxer who if he had been seriously interested in pursuing a career in boxing would not have picked a fight with such a mediocre athlete. That's just one example.
Secondly, any film that has narration to it must be held suspect. And Morgan Freeman's narration added NOTHING to the story. If you were to see this film without any narration whatsoever, you would have come away with the same reaction you did with the narration. It was entirely superfluous and unnecessary and is BAD FILM MAKING.
Thirdly, Hilary Swank's parents were flatly drawn. Her mother expressed no inner conflict about who she was and just wanting the money made her very contemptible and as a result not interesting! You just hate her. But so what?? Then it becomes a sob fest between Clint Eastwood and Swank and that grows tiresome, BORING, and one long weeping Hallmark card.
This is film is good but not great and doesn't at all deserve the encomiums bestowed upon it by film critics who so desperately need to find SOME KIND of film to praise during an otherwise very poor year for film (2004, that is). Always remember folks, conflict is what drives a movie forward. Conflict!! And in Million Dollar Baby there wasn't nearly enough of it and what there was of it was very contrived.
Do yourself a favor and rent this one but don't pay $10 to see it. It's not worth it.