Would a Bright, Primary Color Here or There Be Too Much to Ask, Mr. Eastwood?

Rating: 7/10 (3 September 2010)

"Million Dollar Baby" hit me like a punch to the solar plexus while I was watching it in the theater. But then afterwards, when I started to think critically about the movie, little nagging details started to really bug me and took away from the film's lingering impact.
Clint Eastwood does fine work as an actor, but my praise of his directing abilities has cooled somewhat over time. There's something overly formal about his films that always remind me I'm watching a movie. "Million Dollar Baby" is relentlessly gray and brown, both in actual physical production design and in tone. Though it seems like matter-of-fact filmmaking stripped of any pretense, Eastwood infuses his controversial story with very little ambiguity. He stacks the deck so much in favor of the film's final thesis -- that assisted suicide with dignity is better than living out the rest of one's life in a paralyzed state -- that there's little room for argument. And the goonish caricatures he presents as Hilary Swank's trailer trash family are an embarrassment to his movie.
This film clearly comes from a heartfelt place, but it's not without its flaws.
Grade: B+