Okay, okay, it won lots of prizes

Rating: 4/10 (14 December 2005)

This is one of those flicks that no one knows how to comment on until after it wins lots of awards and then, finally, everyone can say what a great movie it is.
Well, let me say first that I love Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman and I really thought that this would be a movie about a woman overcoming odds to become a boxer.
Instead, boxing seemed to take a back seat to everyone's angst- Frankie's (Eastwood) family crisis with his daughter- Maggie's (Swank) crisis with her family- it just goes on and on.
I wanted to love this movie, but found myself spiraling into some deep depression by the end - does that make it a great movie because it made me depressed? I don't think so. Does it make Eastwood brilliant because I felt like I was crawling on the ground by the final scene? Not really.
It made me wonder about Clint Eastwood and how happy he is as a person and what kind of relationship he has with his family members. It made me wonder why Morgan Freeman hasn't become a "bigger" star than he is and why he always has to talk over the movie. It made me wonder why Hilary Swank took such a role that was so odd and yet so predictable from the start-- my movie companion said he knew after the first ten minutes that things weren't going to go well for Maggie. We both ended up so depressed that we had to switch the channel to a news station to revive our spirits.
Sorry, everyone. I really did not like this movie and scratched my head over all the rave reviews.