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Film review

Eastwood, cast deliver 1-2 punch

One of the best boxing films ever made and a first-rate tear-jerker to boot, Million Dollar Baby is likely to be cherished for years to come.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published January 27, 2005

[Photo: Warner Bros.]

Clint Eastwood plays boxing trainer Frankie Dunn, who at first is reluctant to take on Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank).

There's a dramatic sucker punch thrown midway through Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby that only a masterpiece could survive. One false note beforehand might make it a clumsy lunge for pathos. One misstep after, and Eastwood's film would collapse under the kind of emotional pretension that gets movies hooted off the screen.

But Million Dollar Baby is as close to perfection as any crowd pleaser can be. Eastwood establishes an authentic setting and richly detailed characters without glaring exposition in a genre - the sports movie - so worked over that it's amazing such a fresh perspective is possible. Million Dollar Baby is already one of the best boxing films ever, before it becomes a first-rate tear-jerker so genuine that even cynical viewers surrender.

The turning point won't be revealed here, and I urge everyone to avoid anyone trying to spoil it. You deserve that same rush of confusion, melancholy surprise and admiration at the film's transition. It's nothing as unexpected as the revelation in The Crying Game, but equally effective, in effect changing genres with the nimbleness of a featherweight contender.

Eastwood also stars as Frankie Dunn, longtime owner of the Hit Pit gym in Los Angeles after a career as the best cut man in the business. One smart tactic to stop a fighter's gash is all we need to know about Frankie's acumen. Eastwood treats nearly everything that way in Million Dollar Baby, carefully crafting moments speaking volumes that don't need repeating. This is a director completely secure with his material, cast and crew, without a shred of indulgence or wasted time.

Frankie's gym assistant is Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupree, another wonderful, wise character for Morgan Freeman to play. Scrap, as he's called, is the film's narrator, a device that often annoys me yet feels so appropriate here. First, because there isn't a better voice to hear than Freeman's, then because Paul Haggis' adapted screenplay overflows with beautiful words, such as Scrap's description of a rural town: "Set in the cedars and oak trees somewhere between nowhere and goodbye."

That's where Maggie Fitzgerald hails from. Maggie, portrayed by Hilary Swank, fled her trailer park to follow her dream of becoming a champion boxer. Frankie is her choice of trainer, but he doesn't work with "girlies" in the "freak show" of women's boxing. She'll change his mind with raw talent and the way she reminds Frankie of a daughter he deserted. Million Dollar Baby is near-mythic in Maggie's rise, with one-punch knockouts and fan support that Eastwood's lean directing style keeps credible.

Swank's performance already earned a Golden Globe and deserves an Academy Award. The physical demands could be handled by any actor with a personal trainer. However, few could match Swank's unerring Ozarks accent, her subtle shifts from bumpkin to bruiser to something completely different without losing the character's core. It's a tricky role nailed by an actor who hides her tricks well.

In essence, though, this is Frankie's story, and Eastwood handles the role with such ease that it's hard to judge whether his acting or directing is the greater accomplishment. He takes Frankie's character flourishes - reading Gaelic, needling a priest daily - and tempers them to something less than eccentricities. It's the strong, nearly silent type Eastwood is known for, but the only other role to draw such naked emotions from him is the gunfighter Bill Munny in Unforgiven.

Million Dollar Baby is packed with gems, scenes that tell just enough and supporting players who resonate. A weakling, wanna-be boxer (Jay Baruchel) is pure comic relief but starts the film's darkening with one superbly staged scene. Maggie's family, led by her opportunistic mother (Margo Martindale), clues viewers about Maggie's past and why Frankie and boxing mean so much to her. Placed before superb set design, in strategically dim lighting for Tom Stern's cameras, this ensemble is vital to the film's transcendence of cliche.

Of all 2004's films, Million Dollar Baby is the one most likely to be cherished and revisited. It may become the next undeniable favorite of many, like Freeman's prison drama The Shawshank Redemption did. In both movies we're placed in situations turning out less familiar than expected, with personalities so steeped in peculiar goodness that we aspire to their strengths. "Sometimes the best way to deliver a punch is to step back," Scrap says. Eastwood takes that advice and scores a knockout.

Grade: A

Director: Clint Eastwood

Cast: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel, Margo Martindale, Mike Colter, Lucia Rijker, Anthony Mackie, Brian F. O'Byrne

Screenplay: Paul Haggis, based on Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner by F.X. Toole.

Rating: PG-13; boxing violence, profanity, disturbing images

Running time: 132 min.

[Last modified February 16, 2005, 05:40:20]