Another solid and gut-wrenching film from Eastwood

Rating: 7/10 (17 February 2005)

It is an interesting phenomenon to me that some actors, regardless of their popularity, are much better directors than actors. Sidney Pollack and Ron Howard come to mind immediately, but I feel that the personification of this idea is Clint Eastwood, whose film "Million Dollar Baby" is absolutely wonderful.
"Million Dollar Baby" is the story of Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank), a waitress described as "white trash", who is in reality, everything her reputation is not. Born and raised in the deep south and raised in a family of lazy, horrible people, she turns up at the training gym of Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), begging him to train her for the women's boxing circuit. When he repeatedly says no, she continues to train furiously, until he relents and the two (plus Frankie's right hand man Eddie Dupris, played by Morgan Freeman) strike up a working relationship that quickly develops into a deep friendship. When Maggie is injured during the most important match of her life, their relationship reaches an even greater level, where they both have to make decisions that will affect the rest of their lives.
I went into "Million Dollar Baby" with a couple of preconceptions, something that I try not to do. Luckily, they ended up working in favor of me enjoying the film. Firstly, of the Eastwood-directed films I have seen, (namely "Play Misty for Me", "Unforgiven" and "Mystic River", I acknowledged that they were good films. In the case of "Unforgiven" and "Mystic River", they were really good, if not great films. "Million Dollar Baby" falls squarely into that category as well. The film's story is compelling (and somewhat controversial, at least for some people) until its conclusion, a very refreshing thing to behold, particularly nowadays when twenty pages of script seem to constitute a feature length screenplay.
Regarding the script, there was not a moment when I didn't buy what was being presented to me, and I think that this is partly thanks to the superior performances of the three primary actors. "Performance" isn't even a fair word to use in this case because there was never a moment where I felt that they were "acting". Despite the heavy dramatic themes, histrionics were not present. Hilary Swank is simply amazing, and shows that given the right material, she will take the role and make it hers alone; I cannot fathom anyone else doing her complicated role any kind of justice. Morgan Freeman  someone give this man an Oscar. I'm not entirely sure how many times you can be consistently excellent in a role before they are actually given public recognition for their talents, but once again, he pulls out a great supporting role as a variant of his "Shawshank" character, only with a lot more vinegar in him. The biggest surprise for me, however, was Clint Eastwood. As I mentioned earlier, one can appreciate someone for being an icon, but an iconic status does not make one a good actor. (See John Wayne, or more recently, J.Lo for other examples.) His performance in "Million Dollar Baby" however, was sublime. Frankie's character is a study in dynamics; he is curmudgeonly yet generous, fierce but tired. He attends church daily, but on some level questions his faith. Perhaps it was the role that he gave himself, but he was a perfect fit. Previously, I'd only seen Eastwood as a squinting, growling man in his roles; and frankly, he does the same thing in this role as well  but in this case it works wonderfully.
As far as Eastwood's direction, it is once again dead-on. The film, despite its violent and emotional themes is very warm, with its lighting and cinematography. The pacing is also excellent. Once again, however, while I feel the film was very good, and I certainly wouldn't be staging my 342nd boycott if it won an Oscar, there was nothing about the film that excited me. The story and the performances grabbed me, but I didn't feel "excited" when I left, as I have with about a half dozen other films I've seen in the past year. I mentioned Ron Howard earlier in regard to acting, and I feel compelled to invoke his name again in this instance. His films are good, solid films. But (and not to personalize this too much) when, for example, I saw that "A Beautiful Mind" and "Moulin Rouge!" were both up for Best Picture, I was disappointed when the former won because it was a "safe" choice. A good movie, but nothing dynamic about it. And that's how I feel about Eastwood's films; they are good films, I can't find a lot of things wrong with them, but in general they don't excite me.
I still give "Million Dollar Baby" a 7/10, however because it is a very good film, and I think it is very deserving of its Oscar nomination and of the many accolades it has received, both from film critics and regular theatergoers like us alike.
--Shelly