Pro Euthansia Hype

Rating: 3/10 (19 July 2005)

We never really get to know the boxer in this film, she remains to the end a one-dimensional caricature and Eastwood's character was entirely unlikeable throughout. Freeman's narration was too eerily similar to Shawshank Redemption and seemed to have no real importance to the overall story, along with the rest of the gym's boring denizens.
Although Swank does a good job with the material she is given, her dialogue never seems to transcend "oh golly gee boss." She is a great actress and was breathtaking in Boys Don't Cry, but in this - she was cardboard. What was her attraction to boxing and to Frankie Dunn? Who knows. Who cares. Apparently, that was incidental to the story.
Evil Germans, stupid White Trash, a saintly janitor, and a boxer that rises to the top in 1 year with barely any training - where have we seen this all before? This is a pro euthanasia movie that doesn't even make an attempt to show the other side. The Eastwood character unilaterally takes the law into his own hands without due process or legal recourse and murders the boxer. Sickening and not a good message after the Terri Schaivo debacle. I wonder how much of the hype for this movie is out of political motivation for its seedy message.
The unrealistic boxing, the grating narration, the nasty priest, the meaningless sideshow characters, and the hackneyed clichés that riddled the film seem in the end to have all been mere plot vehicles to depict how wonderful euthanasia is. If that is the case, shame on you Clint.
Clint Eastwood has great talent and his Mystic River was an excellent movie but he can't seem to get past his Dirty Harry persona. I've seen enough of it already but apparently most people haven't judging by the undeserved awards this film garnered.
This is the most over-hyped mediocrity since American Beauty. 20 years from now it will be entirely forgotten.