Good start LOUSY ending

Rating: 5/10 (22 December 2005)

This is a definite spoiler so if you don't want that, don't read any further.
Let's skip to the end for my pet peeve. I have a physical challenge and I am so sick and tired of the movie industry painting us one of two ways. Either the character is placed on a pedestal so high I could never get my wheelchair on it. Or, as in the case of Million Dollar Baby, as a #$#** coward that would rather die than face a difficult challenge. Guess what Hollywood? We're just the same as everyone else. Meaning, yeah there are a few out there like that, but most of us are regular people who enjoy being alive whatever our limitations and who usually find a way to do what we want and need to do.
This is what rang false in this movie and ruined it for me. If Maggie (Hillary Swank was such a fighter, she wouldn't have given up in the end. It wouldn't have been in her. Need I cite examples? (Christopher Reeve). The movie would have been so much better if rather than talking Frankie (Clint Eastwood) into euthanasia (another name for murder/suicide), it had shown Maggie as struggling but ready to take on the next challenge and fight the next fight. The ending alone knocked this movie down several points in my vote.
Okay, off my soapbox. Up to that point it was a fairly good movie and I liked the acting. Other than what I've already mentioned (and a minor point I'll mention in a minute), Hillary Swank did another quality acting job, as she usually does. Clint Eastwood was Clint Eastwood, just as John Wayne's characters were always John Wayne. If you like the one basic character he always seems to portray (and I do usually) you'll like him here. My complaints are all in the writing department, not acting. Did anyone else get tired of Hillary calling Clint "boss" throughout the movie in that southernish accent. She sounded like a prison inmate when she did that. But as I said, a minor complaint.
Bottom line, enjoy most of the movie, skip the stereotypical demeaning ending.