Uneven but mostly satisfying

Rating: Null/10 (6 February 2005)

I'll skip the full-blown review, as you have undoubtedly plowed through dozens already.
As brilliant as director Eastwood continues to be in presenting carefully nuanced main characters, he falls short when it comes to his supporting players. Margaret's family were too broadly drawn (though the actress playing her mother did pretty well with the script she was given), and the "Blue Bear" was needlessly reduced to a one-dimensional cartoon heavy. Had the latter been portrayed as a morally neutral opponent - simply a professional athlete defending her title - the overall tone of the film would have been a bit more thoughtful. Why go for the stereotype Evil Cheating Bad Girl? Was Eastwood afraid we wouldn't root hard enough for Maggie if her opponent were presented as anything other than irredeemably wicked? And, on the same note, the Big Eventful Punch ought not to have been any less tragic had it been presented as a legal (or even accidental) blow. In this sense, Eastwood sort of took the easy way out. (One might add that in 99 fights out of 100, a fighter who hits his or her opponent while the opponent is already on the canvas is going to be immediately disqualified.)
The controversial social issue at the heart of the last act of the movie was handled better than I had expected it would be. I did not feel that it was excessively manipulative. Indeed, under the circumstances it was handled in a less sentimental manner than many other directors might have approached it.
Hilary Swank deserves ten Oscars for her phenomenal performance. It's a shame they can only give her one - and rest assured that they will. Morgan Freeman is reliable in a role which - let's face it - differs little from most others he has played in the last ten years. He ought to be expected to play this sort of role in his sleep by now. Yet he always manages to find something fresh in these seemingly similar characters, and he is always utterly believable. Clint's Frankie is perhaps a bit too self-consciously crusty, and how many times do we have to see the rough-edged curmudgeon with refined literary taste to recognize one of Hollywood's more irritating modern stereotypes? (Rowdy Yates reads Yeats! How clever.)
The camera work was quite good, but the sound editing was generally poor; I suspect a good deal of intelligent dialogue was missed by the audience as a result.
All in all, worth the ten bucks, especially for Ms Swank's sublime performance.