Million Dollar Baby

2004 "Beyond his silence, there is a past. Beyond her dreams, there is a feeling. Beyond hope, there is a memory. Beyond their journey, there is a love."
8.1| 2h12m| PG-13| en
Details

Despondent over a painful estrangement from his daughter, trainer Frankie Dunn isn't prepared for boxer Maggie Fitzgerald to enter his life. But Maggie's determined to go pro and to convince Dunn and his cohort to help her.

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Reviews

TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film
ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.
Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
Anish Misra Million Dollar baby is a film directed by Clint Eastwood. I wanted to watch the film but circumstances didn't allow me to do so. Finally, Last night I decided to watch it and was blown away.Plot: Follows Frankie Dunn, an old boxing trainer who decides to train an aspiring female boxer, a thing Frankie has never done in life. Story and direction: The film is just not about boxing (as I thought it would be). It is about the bonding and emotions formed between characters in the film. This is very well crafted by writer, Paul Haggis and director Eastwood. I was actually quite shocked of the themes the film dealt with. I was just fascinated by each and every scene of the film. The dialogue felt so real and struck a lightning bolt in my heart. I could relate to each and every scene in the film. The cinematography in the film is awesome. The boxing scenes were shot in a beautiful way. What added to the intensity of the boxing is the razor sharp editing. In addition to directing and producing the film, Eastwood also scores the film. Although the score is very minimal (which was apt considering the storyline the film was going for) and employs mostly pianos and guitars, it was very effective. My only flaw of the film was the sudden change of tone. It felt the first half was one film and second was another. If the flow would have been even, thw film would have been a notch higher.Performances: Clint Eastwood is a multi-talented personality. He acts perfectly. The grumpiness and mellowed version of his character was balanced perfectly by him. Hilary Swank was believable in every scene of the film. The hard work gone through by her is visible clearly. Morgan Freeman, who does serve as narrator too, does a wonderful job in supporting our main characters as well as guiding the audience through this emotional and soulful journey.Favorite Scene: It would be the scene where Maggie faces her first match with Sally as her manager and Frankie and Scrap watch from the other side of the hall. Frankie repeatedly tells Maggie to keep her left up. But when Frankie realises that Sally is making the match go his way for his own benefit; Frankie steps up to help Maggie. This scene showed the bond formed between Frankie and Maggie and how much Frankie cared for Maggie even if Frankie wants to hide it.Verdict: No wonder this film won big at the Academy Awards the subsequent year. Filled with earnest performances and a heart-filling emotional story and set-up, the film is definitely as must watch for those who feel that emotions surpass everything.I am going with a 9/10.
jhunts5 We watched with a group of people and were left unimpressed. If you want a slow, depressing drama, this is for you. The ultimate goal was to say "go euthanasia!" We were hoping for a bright moment before then end, but instead it just fizzled out. No purpose, no hope. Everyone in our group was only disappointed that we watched the movie. We should have known better though - Hollywood praised and awarded it as a great movie, that is usually very bad news. In this case, it was. It wasn't that the acting was bad; they did their job well. But you were hoping for a good ending - not necessarily Rocky-esque - but something with some hope that makes you feel like you were glad you watched. I was sad that I watched.
john_siv Good boxing movie with some tremendous performances, but the moral message of this film was appalling. By the end of the picture euthanasia was essentially glorified and that is absolutely not okay in any movie. The production code back in the golden age of cinema was there for a reason; to make sure the right sort of stories were told and the right sort of messages sent. I can't say I find a 'mercy killing' particularly moving or heartbreaking - I find it a deplorable indictment of the morality of the world that such an ending can be gushed over.The scene where Maggie asked Frankie to put her out of her misery was moving and well done, couldn't the picture have just ended there? Seeing him actually do it was crass, unnecessary and left a bad taste in the mouth.
undeaddt I can't say that I loved the movie, but I liked it. Throughout the movie I felt like the girl was a bit to forced with the acting, it didn't seem natural to me, somehow I couldn't feel with her. But as the movie went on, you slowly grow with the character, all the way until the end where the story comes to a heartbraking finish and leaves you in tears. Clint and Morgan were top class, as always, one of the best roles they played and one of the best movies Clint Eastwood made.