This movie was not a sports movie.

Rating: 7/10 (5 September 2005)

I can't honestly say if there are true spoilers in here, but I thought it would make sense to flag it since I relate some of my comments to the plot which could give it away.
This movie is not a sports movie. This movie is not the greatest boxing movie ever. This is a story about broken people reaching for the stars that just happens to involve boxing.
I recall when the movie came out all I heard about was the "big twist" and the way the movie changed halfway through to something bizarre and . I think that was because many people felt this was supposed to be a female version of Rocky, which it isn't. This isn't a feel good movie about a boxer who go lucky.
This is a story about a bunch of people, who did go after all of their dreams and put their entire lives on the line for it and, in my opinion, despite their best efforts seemed to fall short either due to no lack of trying, but just rotten luck.
Except for Maggie (Swank), In the beginning of this movie each character is flawed and broken, a mere shell of their former selves. This movie could have been done without the using of boxing at all, but I think it was an excellent choice of medium because boxing has been the source of many true bizarre tragic stories.
The portrayal of each of these characters is tremendous and for that alone the movie deserves many kudos. The story is fairly complete. I didn't think there were any real loose ends except for the ones that were deliberately created for cinematic and story telling purposes, not for sequel generation (doesn't everything seem like a trilogy these days?). I believe the filming of the movie was done with in an appealing, yet simplistic fashion, through the clever use of lighting and angles to bring solid atmospheres and emotions to different scenes - in some ways, I feel, similar to what Clint Eastwood did in Unforgiven.
While I feel this was an excellent movie, I don't think this is one I could watch over and over. I like movies like this except for that taste of dissatisfaction at the end, when you feel like nothing was every truly resolved despite the best efforts of the characters or the movie. Maybe I missed, something and there was more resolution that I though, but I don't feel like I did.
And for the parents who might read this, I think high school and up is the age range for this movie. I think younger kids might find some of the material very uncomfortable and disturbing.