Million Dollar Baby- The Movie

well this movie inspires me to fight till the last...to aspire higher and "VICTORY IN THE FACE OF DEFEAT"...its the last words that he tells her "royal blood" thats matters...

This is the kind of movie critics love, as it gives them an opportunity to show how "deep" they are. Unlike it's title character, it spars with the audience for 3 rounds, dancing and weaving, jabbing and poking, giving us hope that we can win. Then in round 4... For the most part, it's done masterfully. The lead performances are stunning, the characters beautifully drawn and compelling, the story enchanting. Even Clint's very own score- simple and wonderful. The movie intelligencia will say that the U-turn this film takes is what makes it brilliant. I just think it's brilliant manipulation. And brilliant or not, I find obvious manipulation to be irritating. This film was purposely and intricately set up by the writer and director to be one story. Then they threw a left hook, hoping I would be impressed. Actually, I was only reminded of the mechanics, which pulls me out of the story. I was also less than impressed with some of the ridiculous and cliche'd ancillary characters. It's almost as if most of the writing / directing energy was sapped by the wonderfully drawn main characters, so they borrowed the other characters from a comic strip. Finally, in a story that professes to be so raw and genuine, how can a major plot point be so ludicrously unrealistic? In hopes of not giving away the story, I will simply point out that boxing has rules. When a major rule in a fight is broken, especially egregiously, the fighter is disqualified. The other fighter wins by default. Fortunately for Clint et al, the same clearly isn't true of filmmaking