Good Story; Too Many Caricatures For Me

Rating: 6/10 (24 September 2007)

I can't say that I've ever been interested in women's boxing (I'm not really a fan of any kind of boxing to be honest) but this story did interest me so I gave it a look see. It's a pretty good, traditional kind of "underdog goes for it" story with a solid cast that held my interest, although I can't honestly say that I was ever on the edge of my seat with any of this.
The lead characters are all well played. Hilary Swank surprised me in the role of Maggie Fitzgerald, the 31 year old who decides she wants to be a professional boxer to get out of her life as a waitress. She handled the part very well and was pretty believable. Clint Eastwood played her manager, Frankie Dunn. Personally, I thought he was showing his age a bit here but again he was solid in the role of the over-cautious manager, estranged from his daughter and with some definite secrets in his life. Morgan Freeman, as always, pulled off his part as Eddie Du Pris quite well. He also had probably the funniest lines of the movie: first when he was explaining to Frankie why his socks had so many holes, and then after he KO'd the young fighter who hurt his friend - the mentally challenged "Danger" (Jay Baruchel) - and said simply "there's 110" - a reference to an earlier scene when we learned he had quit boxing after 109 fights.
The primary thing I didn't like about the movie were the over-the-top caricatures. Danger was one example. There was Maggie's stereotypical hillbilly, welfare family. There was the evil champ (the female Clubber Lang, I guess) who would stop at nothing to stop Maggie from getting her title. I didn't think any of those caricatures were really necessary to the plot, and frankly I found those characters irritating. Aside from that, though, I thought this was pretty good stuff.
6/10