Excellent Film with Unique Twists but...

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2011)

"Million Dollar Baby" was excellent in many ways. The plot starts out as being rather conventional, and you think you're watching a female version of "Rocky" but then it twists in a way that no one could possibly predict...except the writer. One twist and the standard convention is turned on its head.
For a short while there is still the desire to believe that there is still one more miracle in this million dollar baby, perhaps she can recover and fight again---but that is just the writer playing with the standard convention. It is brilliantly done.
If you like depressing, but well done movies---this will be one of your favorites.
Having worked in brain injury rehabilitation, I was aware of the problems that paralysis could present for attempting suicide. I was still surprised that the writer figured out a way of attempting it. For me, this was another surprising twist.
Lastly, the movie leaves some questions unanswered, and I assume that all those unanswered questions were designed for contemplation. Often in life we don't know why people act the way they do---we just speculate. Perhaps the movie would have lost something if we were given an answer. Perhaps if we were given an answer it still would have left more questions.
Overall this is a great film with great writing, acting, directing and editing.