Clint Eastwood's 25th film as a director, Million Dollar Baby stands proudly with Unforgiven and Mystic River as the masterwork of a great American filmmaker. In an age of bloated spectacle and computer-generated effects extravaganzas, Eastwood turns an elegant screenplay by Paul Haggis (adapted from the book Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner by F.X. Toole, a pseudonym for veteran boxing manager Jerry Boyd) into a simple, humanitarian example of classical filmmaking, as deeply felt in its heart-wrenching emotions as it is streamlined in its character-driven storytelling. In the course of developing powerful bonds between "white-trash" Missouri waitress and aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), her grizzled, reluctant trainer Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), and Frankie's best friend and training-gym partner Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris (Morgan Freeman), 74-year-old Eastwood mines gold from each and every character, resulting in stellar work from his well-chosen cast. Containing deep reserves of love, loss, and the universal desire for something better in hard-scrabble lives, Million Dollar Baby emerged, quietly and gracefully, as one of the most acclaimed films of 2004, released just in time to earn an abundance of year-end accolades, all of them well-deserved. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Rating:
Summary: 3.5 stars out of 4
Comment: The Bottom Line:

Marred only by an unfortunate subplot involving a mentally-deficient boxer, Million Dollar Baby is a powerful look at three characters that pulls no punches and takes its story to an emotionally honest conclusion; a deserved Oscar-winner, it is well worth a watch.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Could Not Look Away
Comment: ***** Spoiler Alert *****

Hats off to Mr. Eastwood for getting me to watch a film about women's boxing. I believe that boxing (regardless of gender) is largely barbaric and distasteful.

Add to that, women's boxing is made up in part by ex-prostitutes and ex-strippers, which means that we are heading into degrading territory. Even Frankie deemed female boxing a freak show, rendering him highly reluctant to get involved.

The true heart of this movie is a father-figure daughter-figure love story.

Frankie had to overcome the following to give Maggie her final gift:

1) ethical concerns
2) legal concerns
3) the guilt-inducing part of Catholicism that would have him go against his heart
4) the life-driven part of humanity that struggles against what Frankie did
5) his own desire to keep Maggie with him

Frankie was already carrying an awful emotional load concerning his biological daughter, as well as a burden of guilt of over what had happened to Freeman's character.

We would all struggle to do what Frankie did for Maggie. But when you look at the baggage he was already carrying, his gift became all the more meaningful.

This is not the easiest movie to sit through, but in the end Frankie's great fatherly love succeeds in making it worthwhile.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The best movie I've ever seen...
Comment: And that is saying a lot...because I consider myself to be a lover of movies...This ranks right alongside if not above Braveheart, The Godfather, and E.T. I can't say it is the movie I liked the most...but it is SO well acted...so well directed...and the story, although seemingly contrived worked for me. Swank has proved that she is in a class all by herself, with her second Oscar and quite possibly the best female performance I can EVER remember...it is the subtleties of her portrayal that makes this performance work... I was wondering if my assessment of this flick was way off, so I started surfing reviews...and for once,

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Characters are Great!
Comment: Do not let anyone tell you that this is not a film about boxing as some critics have said - it is, or at least 85% of it is. But, whether you are boxing fan or not (and I am definitely not!) this is a great film, that is brilliantly acted and directed with the three main characters being stand-outs. Firstly, Clint Eastwood's acting and direction are peerless, while Morgan Freeman brilliantly plays his part in an understated way, but what a performance by Hilary Swank - the Academy had to give her the Oscar. The mood of the boxing game was well-caught, but without giving anything away the last half-hour of this movie is fantastic, and will remain in the memory of all who see "Million Dollar Baby". Clearly Eastwood is the premier Director in Hollywood with his great "Mystic River" and now this.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: smash mouth boredom
Comment: A very dark, but curiously shallow movie. (Why do we often think that movies depicting broken lives and terrible pain are deep?) Story line: White trash girl who wants to box talks old trainer into working with her. First good things happen, then bad things happen. I kept watching, thinking that soon I would begin to like one of the characters and be drawn into the story. Didn't happen. Beyond learning a little bit about boxing and the boxing world, this movie was a waste of time. And I usually like Clint Eastwood.....

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