Fight movie with a wallop of a punch to the gut!

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2005)

Million Dollar Baby just came to our fair city this weekend, so I had to go see it. I'm leery of seeing a film when my expectations are so high, it's usually a letdown. Not in this case. I left the theater over an hour ago, and my eyes are still puffy and my nose is still stuffed and running. This is Clint Eastwood's best performance since playing Bill Munny in Unforgiven. In this movie he plays Frankie Dunn, a grizzled old fighter who now owns a boxing gym and trains young fighters. Morgan Freeman is perfect in the role of his sidekick, another old ex-fighter, taking care of the gym for Frankie, while Frankie takes care of him, for reasons that become known during the film. Same type of role he had in Unforgiven as Ned Logan. But the person who really shines in my opinion is Hilary Swank. This film is going to get her noticed. She was good in "Boys Don't Cry" and OK in "Insomnia", but in this she is simply terrific. She talks Frankie Dunn into managing and training her, against his better judgment, a decision that will have lasting consequences on his life.
Without giving too much away, one of the things that made this film so gut-wrenching for me was that it wasn't sentimental, and didn't fall into the trap of having to have a happy ending, rather the ending is about making choices and dealing with tragedy. We may all fantasize the happy ending,we fantasize because it so rarely happens; but if we live long enough, we all have to deal with choices and decisions in tragic situations.
Well, my nose is running again as I urge you to please go see this film, I think it will be worth your while.