Worthy - perhaps overly-so and very Americanised in its self conscious protesting of valuable issues

Rating: 7/10 (19 January 2005)

Million Dollar Baby
Million Dollar Baby 7/10 Hilary Swank, as she did in Boys Don't Cry, has transformed herself physically for the part. Emotionally, intellectually, physically and - in terms of determination - spiritually, she *is* the character, and it's a stunning achievement. (She plays an underprivileged girl who wants to succeed as a boxer and eventually persuades Clint Eastwood to coach her.)
Sadly, while it's an undoubtedly well (enough) made film, the directing, and acting elsewhere, is to my mind hardly of the calibre to justify the accolades the film is receiving generally. America, if not many other Western audiences, have become so inured to that self-congratulatory style where the camera zooms in for a close up and the actor holds an expression slightly longer than necessary for that 'Oscar moment'. These audiences, in my opinion, should get out more to some good traditional French cinema and see how lacking such Hollywoodized performances are compared to the European tradition of acting in a more 'natural' and believable way.
Another reason for the over-hype on Million Dollar Baby, is probably because the themes towards the end of the film (without giving too much away) now firmly belong to the almost trendy political left wing liberalism that many like to embrace. Whilst possibly putting myself in that camp, I am not in this case convinced that the way it is dealt with here justifies the extravagant kudos the movie has acquired over its more cinematic merits. I can only give it 7/10, but if I were in America (USA) I'd probably give it more, simply because it may have some good socially effect in that morally moribund and religiously intolerant country.
Million Dollar Baby is a very good film, but over-long and too full of it's own self-importance for my taste.