Great film with frustrating, unrealistic plot

Rating: 6/10 (10 November 2005)

Okay to start with I liked the characters and the acting was great and the lighting gave great mood. The score was good, the writing was sharp, and the cinematography was perfect for the kind of film it was. BUT I hated the MOVIE. The reason why is the course of events and the way things played out is completely unrealistic in a totally realistic film.
SPOILER WARNING
Where in the hell do Eastwood and Haggis get off expecting any kind of person knowledgeable about sports (boxing in particular) to buy the fact that when Billie Blue sucker punched Maggie and she subsequently fell on the stool she became paralyzed. I mean where the hell does that come from? It was complete and utter bullshit. In not only being totally unrealistic the entire sequence is so contrived and aggravating in its stupidity I sat in the theater in shock. There is no precedent for anything like that ever happening in real life and this is a film that trumpets its realism and is what makes the film so good in other areas.
Besides that Billie Blue would have served jail time for assault or something, or at least been suspended or stripped of the title or something (anything) but there is no retribution against her (jail time or physical) and this is one of the major downfalls of the film. She's only there to get the film from its boxing story to its paraplegic story. As far as plot devices go this is the biggest stretch I've ever seen in a film that is great in so many other areas.
Also the fact that the whole story was a letter Morgan Freeman wrote to Eastwood's daughter was good but there was no finality with that either. We don't see her read the letter and if she did read it we don't see her do anything about it (positive or negative). The movie turned from a boxing picture with great metaphors about life to a major drama.
There are two separate stories here. Maggie coming from nothing and struggling to become champ and a paraplegic who used to be a great boxer but got hurt in the ring. The problem is everyone has seen the first story so much and the second story doesn't have enough material to fill an entire movie.
So combined you get Million Dollar Baby, a really great film that ends up sucking big time. The main reason for this is because it is a film so grounded and immersed in reality and real characters but its plot is so un-freakin-believable that it overshadows everything else to the film's demise.