Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby won four Academy Awards this year (Best Picture, Clint Eastwood for Best Director, Morgan Freeman for Best Supporting Actor, Hilary Swank for Best Actress). The day after the Academy Awards show I went to see the movie in Basel.
SPOILER WARNING - Do NOT continue reading only after you have seen the movie...
It is a wonderful movie even for people who normally do not like boxing (like me). (As always,) I knew almost nothing about the movie and went there spontaneously. More than the first half of the film is an interesting story about boxing. This really drew me into it: the characters are laid out nicely and the performance of the three leading characters is really outstanding.
Clint Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn who has trained and managed some incredible fighters. He has spent his whole lifetime with boxing. The most important lesson he teaches is: always protect yourself. Frankie has some darker secrets in his past: first of all his relationship to his daugther is terribly broken and he goes to chruch every day trying to redeem himself. Second of all his best friend (and probably also his only friend) Scrap (Morgan Freeman) lost his eye during his 109th fight and Frankie is feeling guilt for not having ended the fight earlier.
All of a sudden Maggie Fitzgerald (Hillary Swank) moves into Frankies gym. It is made very obvious that her life is not the best either. She is already above 30 and still a waitress - with no friends and no future. She is eager to start her boxing career but Frankie don't train no women.
From that point on, the movie is so fascinating. The characters are intriguing and while you can guess where the story arc is heading the direction and acting left me fascinated.
And then: all of a sudden the great unexpected event happens (I am not going to spoil anything more) and everything is turned upside down and the movie gets REAAALLLY good - to a point where I think the Academy Awards have been well deserved. This movie is worth every Rappen (or cent or penny) the theatre asks for it. Go, see it!!!