MILLION DOLLAR BABY Review d: Clint Eastwood

MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2004)

Direction: Clint Eastwood

Cast: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel, Mike Colter, Lucia Rijker

Screenplay: Paul Haggis; mostly from "Million $$$ Baby," one of the six short stories found in F. X. Toole's (aka Jerry Boyd) Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner

Oscar Movies

Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby

Fresh off the multiple Academy Award nominee Mystic River, Clint Eastwood went on to tackle the ups and downs of the boxing world in Million Dollar Baby. Despite the cheery title, this is not the usual Rocky-esque rags-to-riches story of the determined underdog who inevitably becomes a super-topdog once she (in this case it's a "she") puts on her gloves, jumps into the boxing ring, and starts using other women as punching bags. About two-thirds into the film, Million Dollar Baby takes a radical turn toward tragedy that is as unexpected as the rest of the film is predictable.

Once the dust is settled, however, even that last third quickly derails into the same sentimental mush Eastwood and screenwriter Paul Haggis had concocted earlier in the film. Ultimately, the contrived, slow-moving Million Dollar Baby — which never quite makes up its mind whether boxing is an artful sport or a social disease — is only made tolerable by Hilary Swank's forceful performance as the steadfast fighter.

Watching Million Dollar Baby, which is chiefly based on one of F. X. Toole's short stories, I had the impression I was getting two movies for the price of one. The first part of the film is the cliched Hollywood tale about the pursuit of the American Dream (or perhaps more accurately, the escape from the American Nightmare) against tremendous odds: Poor, fatherless Southern waitress Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank) tries to leave behind her trailer-trash background by punching her way to boxing-ring stardom.

To get there, Maggie begs and cajoles reluctant veteran coach Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) to be her guide and mentor. Frankie is a stoic man (has there ever been an emotional Clint Eastwood hero?) who, much to the dismay of the local priest, doesn't quite grasp the concept of the Holy Trinity, and who for years has been estranged from his daughter.

No points for those who guess that Frankie not only ends up coaching Maggie, but that he also becomes her surrogate father. Or for those who guess that Maggie becomes a stellar, unbeatable fighter.

In the later part of the film, we are taken to Disease Movie of the Week territory. The "disease" in this case is tetraplegia, the result of a brain injury that takes place during a fight. (Of course, go-getting, All-American Maggie doesn't actually lose a fight; her foreign, nasty-looking opponent cheats.)

As our heroine lies paralyzed in bed, it becomes obvious that sooner or later she will ask to be relieved of her suffering — sooner rather than later, I hoped. When the inevitable moment arrives, the avid churchgoer Frankie must decide if he will help to terminate the life of the young woman he has grown to love as a daughter. Once again, no points are given to those who guess Frankie's eventual choice.

Both plot segments found in Million Dollar Baby have been told and retold countless times. In order to make those situations fresh, director Eastwood and screenwriter Haggis needed to add extra layers to the film's characters. Instead, they opted for hoary clichés that date back to film's infancy. (Admittedly, part of the problem may have been the source material, which I haven't read.)

Among Million Dollar Baby's myriad by-the-book developments are Maggie's meteoric rise as a fighter, her unlikely bond with Frankie, the dimestore-philosophical narration provided by a sleepy Morgan Freeman (as Frankie's pal), and, worst of all, the filmmakers' decision to avoid showing us good guys who carry within them dark shades of gray and bad guys who are more than selfishness and/or cowardice incarnate.