| Product: |
Million Dollar Baby (DVD) |
| Date: |
23/02/08 (72 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Brilliant acting, tearjerker, fight scenes
Disadvantages: None
I don't usually like watching films with Clint Eastwood. I don't know what it is about him but I've never enjoyed watching him. Until now the only exception to this was a film called 'A Perfect World' which also starred Kevin Costner. I had heard good things about this film and so despite having Eastwood in a starring role I wanted to see it.
In Million Dollar Baby, Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn, an ex boxer who is now a trainer looking for a boxer to win him a title. He owns a gym which he runs with the help of Morgan Freeman who plays Eddie Dupris. Eddie lost an eye in a boxing match for a title and Frankie holds himself reponsible for this.
Hilary Swank plays Maggie Fitzgerald. She is 31 years old and has grown up with her mum and sister on a trailer park. Determined not to be destined to live the rest of her life in a trailer she leaves her family, gets a job waitressing and sets about learning to box. Something she has always wanted to do and the one thing she thinks she can be good at. When she first approaches Frankie to train her he is not interested as he thinks she is wasting her time because of her age. He also doesn't train girls. Maggie is determined to train and with the help of Eddie who shows her some stuff on the sly she starts to show potential.
When Frankies current title hope ditches him for another manager just as hes ready to go for a title, he decides to give Maggie a go. Frankie has a daughter whom he writes to and gets the letters back return to sender. We don't find out why this is or get to see his daughter at all but as the relationship between Maggie and Frankie develops we can see her becoming a replacement daughter figure.
Maggie becomes a successful boxer and is heading towards that elusive title when disaster strikes. I'm not going to give away what happens and who to as this will spoil the film. However, from about two thirds into the film, the boxing scenes stop and it becomes more abouot the relationships between the characters and a bit more of a touchy feely film.
Throughout the whole film I liked Eastwoods character Frankie. He was clearly a tough nut, but with a soft centre. The humour between him and Freemans character Eddie was great. They really worked well together as a partnership. Obviously caring deeply about each other, but being too much the stubborn tough guys to show it. Eastwood adopted a rougher, more gravelly voice for the role and I think this suited the character well. This was maybe why I found him more watchable on this occasion.
As well as acting in the film, Eastwood also directed and produced. Although I've not seen many Eastwood films in which he has acted in recent years, I did see and enjoy Mystic River starring Sean Penn which he directed.
The film won 4 oscars at the 2005 ceremony. Hilary Swank won her 2nd best actress in a leading role Oscar for this performance, her 1st being for Boys Don't Cry (1999). Morgan Freeman also won best supporting actor and Eastwood won director. The film itself also one the best motion picture award.
I found this to be an enjoyable film. Morgan Freeman narrates the story and at times I did find this a little difficult to hear properly but I still managed to understand the gist of what he was getting at. The scenes between Freeman and Eastwood worked brilliantly as did Eastwood and Swanks scenes together. Other characters in the film included Danger Barch a slightly crazy young lad who Frankie and Eddie allow to believe he is going to be good at boxing one day to keep him off the streets. This added a little humour to the film. I enjoyed the training and boxing scenes. The film didn't follow the predictable storylines and loser finds glory in the end of previous boxing films I have watched such as the Rocky series or other sports based films. Although I was dissapointed for the characters, I think this made for a better and more believable story.
***Main Cast****
Frankie Dunn - Clint Eastwood
Maggie Fitzgerald - Hilary Swank
Eddie Dupris - Morgan Freeman
Danger Barch - Jay Baruchel
Big Willie Little - Mike Colter
Certificate - 12
Running time - 132 minutes
Summary: Million Dollar Film
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