Clichés and Hyperbole.

Rating: 5/10 (4 March 2005)

I don't need an uplifting "Hollywood" ending. I'll take whatever ending a director wants to give as long as it works with the story. If the ending is bleak, I'll take it, as long as it works with the rest of the story. I really like Fat City. I really like The Last Detail. I really like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I really like Donnie Darko. All these had protagonists that died or declined at the end.
Should Eastwood be praised because he was "brave" enough to give us a sympathetic character, build her up, and then kill her? Is this movie worthy of a best picture Oscar? I guess in the world of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members, it is worthy. But once you get past the contrived emotional manipulation, the thoughtful and rich Morgan Freeman narration, the "sparse" performance of Clint Eastwood, the "immense feeling and grace" with which Freeman, Eastwood, and Swank played their characters, and the "tragic poetry" of this film, what do you have left???
I'm still trying to figure that out.
There are 117 links to external reviews on IMDb.com, and as far as I can tell by reading many of them, professional movie critics don't get it either. Sure most of them praise the film and gush over the "rugged, haunting beauty" of this movie. But I can't find a positive review that examines or spells out just what exactly makes this a GREAT movie:
"... is a measured movie, deeply involving us in its characters and their problems..."
"... is a great film, but this one finds the simplicity and directness of classical storytelling..."
"... transcends the rules of the genre and shows us, with an unvarnished simplicity, how human beings struggle to come to terms with the unthinkable."
Most positive reviews written about this film mention the return to "classical" Hollywood storytelling, or some such nonsense. They spend a good paragraph or so speaking about Clint Eastwood's career. They speak to almost nothing that has to do with why this is a GREAT movie. WHAT MAKES IT WORTHY?
I wouldn't say that Million Dollar Baby is a poorly made, poorly acted movie. But I do wonder about where such a film would have gone if made by a no name director with no name actors.