Review of Million Dollar Baby (2004) by Ker Malkin G — 30 May 2013

A good movie but a bit formulaic for my taste. That's forgiveable with a boxing movie though and the strong performances allow it stand out from the crowd a little. It's not my favourite boxing movie but its far from a bad one.

The Morgan Freeman voiceover technique is brought out again for this one and the script is good enough that that works despite being overused as hell. The performances are good- Swank is excellent, Freeman is good and Eastwood is himself (what I can say? I like the movies but the acting does little for me.).

Its a pretty simple movie and I think that's where the emotion lies in it- if this attempted to be flashy and epic then it would fail but this one knows to keep it with the story. That's where the strength of the film is and the 2+ hours fly by because of it.

Its still a bit quiet for my liking though, maybe too much of the butterfly and not enough of the bee. (I HATE MYSELF) Even though the approach grates on me a little, it only makes the film more ambitious and more of a success for pulling it all off.

While it tells a good story, the story doesn't seem to mean anything and its a real failing here- we have a real underdog story that isn't converted into more- its not about overcoming prejudice, its not about realising who you are, its not even about boxing after a while. It ends up feeling like a bit of an ego-trip in that way, it ends up being more about Eastwood showing that he could make another good movie as opposed to it being about making the best movie possible.

The fact that Dunn is so prevalent in the film and yet, to me anyway, is so unappealing is another fault. Some elements are so overdone also- the family is just annoyingly bad, we get the idea and its hammered in far too heavy, one scene was almost laughable because of it. These things along with all of the clichés ruin some of the genuineness and makes it difficult for this one to live up to the hype for me.

Still, films are about telling stories and this one is well put together and well delivered and it manages to have its own character within a pretty restricted genre. A good film but not the best by anyone involved.