Million Dollar Baby (2004) * * * *

 

Directed by:  Clint Eastwood

Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Mackie, Brian F. O'Byrne, Margo Martindale

Million Dollar Baby is not a typical boxing movie.  It doesn't end with a "big fight", but with paralyzed fighter Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank) winning her final battle against her shamelessly manipulative mother who wants to swindle Maggie out of her money even as Maggie lies motionless in a hospital bed.  Maggie's family wasn't around for years and only showed up when they learned she might have money earned from her brief boxing career.  

Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning film (it won four Oscars for Picture, Director, Actress, and Supporting Actor) is about Maggie's dream to become a boxer and how the reluctant Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), who "doesn't train girls" not only becomes her trainer and mentor, but cares for Maggie in a way no one ever did.  He is asked by Maggie to assist her suicide when it becomes apparent Maggie will spend the rest of her life paralyzed from the neck down after a dirty punch in a lucrative match.  By then, Frankie would do anything for her, even help end her life.  Frankie himself is full of guilt to the point he attends church daily.  Guilt about what?  We never know for sure.  Eastwood's performance is among the best of his career.  He's gruff and outspoken, an old school boxing trainer, but he hides deep reservoirs of love and caring for those he allows into his world.  

Among them is Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupris (Freeman), another trainer whom Frankie once managed and is blind in one eye following a beating in the ring long ago.  Freeman narrates the story in his inimitable way and won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role.  He senses the immeasurable pain and regret in Frankie, but Eastwood doesn't play for pathos or sympathy.  Swank, a Best Actress Oscar winner for her role, is the eternal optimist who won't quit until she understands she may have to quit.  She changes Frankie's mind about her due to her energy and willingness to listen.  Boxing is a way out of a career of waitressing and anonymity.  

Eastwood the director is as certain and minimal as Eastwood the actor.  There is barely any fat there.  He drives the story forward, only showing us what is necessary.  He does nothing just for the hell of it.  If it's there, there's a reason.  Million Dollar Baby takes place in the world of boxing and knows its stuff, but there are deeper emotions involved.  Eastwood and his brilliant cast gets to the heart of it and stays there.