Million dollar cliché

Rating: 5/10 (22 February 2005)

Million dollar baby is three parts: a boxing movie, a father-daughter story and a movie about euthanasia.
As a boxing movie it's interesting for camera-work and editing of the boxing scenes, but after all those years it can't still come close to Raging Bull. The father-daughter relation is endearing and in drama terms the best part of the movie. The more complex issue of euthanasia is handled in too simple terms here.
Eastwood's movies are almost never dull, but they are so full of simple clichés that there is a moment when the screen magic becomes an over-sentimental and unbelievable journey. The gym that can't hardly exist, the cleaning man that can't buy socks, the fighter winning everything in the first round, the family that is too crude for words. the Danger guy for the funny note, etc. Morgan Freeman's uninteresting repetition of his voice-over in The Shawshank Redemption tops this off.