Brilliant Character Study

Rating: 9/10 (13 March 2005)

Clint Eastwood does a fantastic job with a poor script in creating a moving film about the interplay of three people Frankie Dunn, (Clint Eastwood), Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), and Eddie Dupris (Morgan Freeman) as they each battle their inner demons and move their lives forward without destroying each other's lives.
Frankie Dunn is a washed-up trainer whose recent prospect dumps him because Frankie doesn't believe in him, doesn't want the fighter to go for the championship. Frankie Dunn is overprotective of himself and his fighters, and his fighters believe the protectiveness is more than a professional liability, it's a belief culture. Eddie Dupris is the loyal friend, ex-near champion boxer who lost an eye in Frankie's care. Maggie Fitzgerald is the female boxer, trying to escape her past and redefine her job, who finds boxing as a way to express and measure herself. She goes to Frankie for training, and eventually, these three are forced to deal with Maggie's success and Frankie's fear of her failing - or is it him failing her?