Every move is telegraphed.

Rating: 10/10 (28 December 2005)

Sweet film, but completely obvious and overwrought at every turn. From the deliberate plot points to the music designed to cue your emotions, it's a film that doesn't ask much from its audience and delivers just as much in return.
It's not that it's a bad film, but it's such a lightweight melodrama. I suppose I expected more from an Oscar winner but who are we kidding; we are a long way away from the days of a film like Midnight Cowboy winning.
Speaking of the Oscars:
Direction: Eastwood's directing masterpiece is Unforgiven, hands down. MDB doesn't come close to delivering what Unforgiven has for the audience, and with a genre film - great.
Best Supporting Actor: What can you say about Freeman, he's always solid but how is this performance different than, say, The Shawshank Redemption? Furthermore, he's also much better in Unforgiven.
Best Supporting Actress: I've never been a fan of Swank's work. She looks and acts like Matt Damon, another actor I don't like. It's not that their bad actors, but it's so apparent in their mannerism that they believe their own hype. Because of that, they end up giving measured performances. They both have no emotional cores. Although, I will say that this was the best of Swank's performances so far; still not Oscar worthy though.