Million Dollar Baby

How do I start describing this movie? I tried to think of something scathing and sassy to say, but the words would not come that way. In all honesty, the movie has left me at loss for words. Because I did not hate it. And because I could not love it either. How could I love a story that relates pain and guilt, loss and death, blood and more blood up to the very end? Thing is, I didn't even notice the movie was about violence at all. It wasn't a movie about boxing, it was about a boxer. I think that's the only reason I was able to stand the movie at all. Morgan Freeman narrates the whole story, and his voice was never affectual, no nuances to over emphasize or solicit any reaction. He just tells us the story of this girl who came into his best friend's life (Clint Eastwood), and who dared to claim a dream, and then left before she was fully able to realize it. I think this is the first Eastwood film I have watched from start to finish, and i found it sparse and lean. That's probably how beauty came to the story. There were no effects, it was just storytelling. We just meet three superbly ordinary people who were just as real as anybody else. The characters didn't aim for sentimentality and mush, they were clear and direct. Hillary Swank seems to have a knack for playing fierce women and I have to admit the movie wouldn't be the same without her.

My favorite line in the movie comes from the scene where Clint Eastwood consults the priest about a hard decision he had to make. The priest replies without the standard churchy answer, but with brevity. "If you do this thing, you' ll be lost, somewhere so deep you will never find yourself."

Alas, how many times does that ring true for all of us?

The only complaint I could muster is that I had to rely heavily on body language to understand what they were saying half of the time. The characters' accents makes every sentence they utter sound like grunts and growls to me. Also, I can't give away the ending yet, since it's still being shown and you might want to watch it. Let me just say, that the movie deserves its Oscar.