Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Director: Clint Eastwood
Writer: Screenplay: Paul Haggis Story: F.X. Toole
Cast: Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel, Margo Martindale
Genre: Drama, Sport

Million Dollar Baby made more of an impression on me the first time around. This time its flaws managed to easily take the experience down at least a notch. Most of that I blame on Eastwood. As usual he's a little to fond of him self, but it might as well be screenwriter Haggis or story creator Toole's mistake. What starts out as a sports drama, soon enough throw away the sports angle to be pure drama, and therein lays their major mistake. The entire movie is built on two angles, where one is ripped apart making most of the introduction more a waste of cinematic proportions than a character introduction.

It's still a story well worth watching, but to me its flaws are more memorable than its good parts after a second viewing. I understand where its praise come from, and that's probably the same reasons why I remembered it fondly prior to my recent visit, but it would have done well with the direction being better implemented during the first half. Another major mistake is the tease of Eastwood's characters own family situation, and that's truly a major mistake in my book looking back.

Anyhow. Swank is great, Eastwood is good-ish and Freeman is used on his strengths, also seen in Shawshank Redemption, when he get to tell the story from his view.