I have faith in Morgan Freeman. I have faith in Clint Eastwood. I haven't faith in Hilary Swank. Yet, I was led to the theater by my curiosity to see if the rave for "Million Dollar Baby" was appropriate. My affection for boxing movies probably helped.
This is not a boxing movie. I won't detail my thoughts for fear of spoilage, but simply say this movie is pretty good. It was very dark and while normally I would feel it overdone, for some reason I didn't. I liked it a lot.
One of the smartest things the director, Mr. Eastwood, did was to keep the actual amount of money Maggie had saved a mystery. If we knew that Maggie had collected $3,465,000, it would have shattered the emotional effect for some viewers. Because the amount was not revealed, it left the figure to each person's imagination; all we know is that it's a lot of money ("a lot" of money means different amounts to different people). This way, no matter how rich or poor, every single person that sees the movie will imagine, once to this part of the movie, a sum that is large in their own perception. Everyone will take in the scenes involving the money the same way. A millionaire and a poor college student will see these scenes and be affected equally.
Of course, I could have completely missed something and my entire above point is flawed like a New England senator.
That's about all I can say about the plot without ruining the movie for you. It was one of the best from the past year—emotional, darkly detailed, blatantly metaphorical, and full of spirit. Some are bashing the movie because of ethical concerns or claiming a lack of true substance. That's fine, but I decided what to take away from this movie.
I think it would've been even better without the Danger character, though, or perhaps a modified version. Still, great movie: 9/10.
I've always had a thing for boxing movies. I liked the Rocky movies as a kid and Raging Bull when I found it. I'm looking forward to Cinderella Man, now.
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