Femmefan MOVIE REVIEW

Million Dollar Baby
- Four Hankies

by Ivette Ricco

January 8, 2005

It takes a special move to get me up off the couch on a stormy Friday evening and travel 20 miles in high winds.

But that’s exactly what my husband and I did last night as I convinced him that we needed a night out and that this movie was worthy of our time, money and inconvenience.

We were not disappointed.

If you are a fan of Rocky, Raging Bull and other classic boxing movies you won’t be disappointed. The training scenes are realistic; the fight scenes are gritty and graphic. The scene in which Maggie Fitzgerald ( Hilary Swank) has her nose broken had the sold out audience wincing and groaning,

But this movie is much more than a Female-Rocky, Million Dollar Baby is really a love story told within a Rocky-like” framework.

The script is (beautifully) patched together from several stories in the 2000 collection "Rope Burns," the first published work (at age 70) of the late Jerry Boyd, a veteran fight manager and "cut man" writing under the pseudonym F.X. Toole.

Frankie Dunn ( Clint Eastwood ) plays the part of a grizzled and lonely owner of a Los Angeles gym.

Frankie was a “cut man” in the boxing game but now spends his time wistfully reading Gaelic books, exchanging barbs with his priest on a daily basis and writing letters to his daughter, which she immediately returns unopened.

Frankie has seen the fight game from every angle and is unable to overcome his fear of severe injury to his fighters, thereby losing talented boxers to managers with the ability to book big fights and not worry about protecting the boxers from getting in over their heads, too soon.

Frankie ’s life is shared with Eddie “Scrap Iron” Duprix ( Morgan Freeman ) a down and out former boxer who Frankie watches over.

Both Frankie and Eddie ’s lives are changed forever when an awkward young woman shows up at the Hit Pit gym and asks Frankie to train her.

Maggie ( Hilary Swank ) is a waitress who picks up scraps of leftover food and takes them home ostensibly for her dog, but in reality for herself.
Maggie considers herself “trailer trash” but boxing is her dream and she won’t take no for an answer.
Hilary Swank delivers a powerful Oscar worthy performance, and this is a worthy follow-up to her 1999 Academy Award-winning performance in ``Boys Don't Cry”.

Maggie is a genuine, homegrown American heroine, willing to stake everything and literally take a beating to raise herself up from the gutter.

Frankie says he doesn’t train “girlies” and rebuffs her constant requests.
But, Maggie wins over Eddie who starts helping her after the gym closes every night.
Eventually Frankie can no longer disregard Maggie ’s hard work and devotion.
He realizes that Maggie Fitzgerald has no one to believe in but herself and Maggie believes that even at 31, she can be a boxer.

Frankie relents reluctantly, begging Maggie always to protect herself in the ring. Miraculously, she turns out to be that fabled figure: the first female boxer to have the potential to become the sport's ``million dollar baby.'' She also turns out to be the beloved daughter Frankie has been longing for.

This is a unique and powerful movie. The story telling is hypnotic, the results unexpected. The deep human emotions shown by Eastwood are unlike any of his previous performances.
He has traveled far from his “Make My Day” one-dimensional characters. At the age of 74 Eastwood has grown into his character roles and is able to draw on raw emotion and show tenderness and caring.
Eastwood reminds us that suffering has a masculine side, and it is as painful and as deep as a woman’s.
His dry humor is always evident in this touching story of two people, each longing for what their own families couldn’t or wouldn’t give them and finally finding what they longed for in each other.
This is a spiritual journey and as beautiful a love story as you will ever experience.

Million Dollar Baby

Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast:
Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman
Rated: PG-13

Related link
The Sweeter Science

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=62476

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