The Academy was right on...

Rating: Null/10 (12 March 2005)

Million Dollar Baby is a great movie.Everything about it is extraordinary,the performance,the directing,the writing.It is easily the best Best Picture winner since 2000.It is a tragic story,Frank Dunn a boxer,and his friend Ed Dupris run a worn out looking boxing gym.Frank is training a promising boxer named Willie,but when Willie feels he is being held back,he leaves.Frank is hurt,but we find out he wants to protect his fighters after Ed lost his eye in a fight years ago.When he meets Maggie Fitzgerald a woman with nothing who decides to take up boxing.Maggie wants Frank to train her,Frank is hesitant but agrees.He and Maggie become good friends,and he is able to train her into a promising fighter.
****Huge Spoilers Below***** Maggie is then paralyzed in the title fight,and Frank who has grown to love her has to decide if he wants to save her,or answer her prayers for death.
Million Dollar Baby is a tragic story,it explores our characters,makes us care about them,and makes you think at the end.
Clint Eastwood gives an astonishing performance,but it is in the director's chair is where he gets the gold,the film has a dark sad feel to it.
Morgan Freeman gives another A+++ performance,I have never seen a performance by him I didn't like even in Bad Movies(Bruce Almighty) Hilary Swank is terrific in the title role,she soars.
A very very high 4/4 even though I saw it today it is the best film of 2004