However, in their first encounter, Frankie tells Maggie bluntly that she’s too old and he doesn’t train girls. More than anything, she yearns for someone to believe in her. Despite a life of constant struggle, Maggie possesses raw talent, unshakable focus, and tremendous will power. Maggie is ambitious, knowing what she wants and willing to do what it takes to get it. That person would be Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), a young girl who out of the blue walks into his gym.

You know this type of character from numerous American movies: A seemingly tough man incapable of feelings, with a dormant sensitive and loving heart beneath the gruff exterior waiting to be unlocked by the right person. His only friend is Scrap (Morgan Freeman), an ex-boxer who looks after Frankie’s gym.įrankie has attended Mass almost every day for the past 23 years, seeking forgiveness that has eluded him. In the wake of a painful estrangement from his daughter, Frankie is reluctant to let himself get close to anyone. The most important lesson he teaches his boxers is also the one rule that governs his life: Always protect yourself. Miraculously, the end result is a touching and engaging drama.įrankie Dunn (Eastwood) is a trainer who’s managed some incredible fighters during a lifetime spent in the ring. Having spent years working as a cut man, the boxing team member whose job it is to patch up injuries, Toole captures vividly life in the ring in all its messiness and exhilaration.Ī light feminist streak runs through Million Dollar Baby, a film that judiciously mixes generic conventions of the boxing drama, a femme-driven story about a poor girl, and a social-issue narrative that humanizes the controversial issue of euthanasia. Fortunately, Million Dollar Baby gets better, deeper, and more resonant as it goes along, so hopefully viewers will disregard the cliches in the film’s first part.Īdapted for the screen by Paul Haggis, Million Dollar Baby is based on a short story from the collection of F.X. The film blends deftly a routine boxing drama (which contains weak fighting sequences) with a great familial love story, set against the down-and-dirty world of a physically and psychologically demanding sport. How do you evaluate Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, an extremely well-directed and well-acted film, in which the first reel is formulaic a la Rocky, the second reel a good boxing melodrama a la indie Girl Fight, and the third reel an intimate drama that matches in its intensity and symbiotic relationships Ingmar Bergman’s best work.

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