Million Dollar Melodrama

Rating: 5/10 (8 February 2005)

A decent (but far from great --- think "Requiem for a Heavyweight," "Raging Bull" or even "Ali") boxing movie until it takes a dismal turn into rheumy, god-awful melodrama. Evidently not content to run the emotional gamut from "Make my day" to "Go ahead, make my day," director-producer-star Clint Eastwood also insisted on writing the sappy Mahleresque soundtrack, which swells with shrink-wrapped emotion even as it sends classical music fans into the lobby for more Jujubes. I fully expected a live tuxedoed violinist to appear, spotlighted, on one of the auditorium balconies to accompany the score as our paraplegic amputee of a heroine lapses into her final coma. By the time Clint pulls her plug, we wish he were pulling ours.