Review - Million Dollar Baby

Grade: 4.5/5

"I don't train girls.", mutters Dunn (Clint Eastwood), while Maggie (Hilary Swank) persistently pesters Dunn to be her coach.

Each character in the movie has his or her fair share of baggage behind him. Dunn's broken relationship with his daughter and his professional regrets, Maggie's poverty and one-tracked determination and Dupris's (Morgan Freeman) fall from grace after a nasty boxing injury that left him partially blind.

Dunn finally sees the passion and determination in Maggie decides: he's going to get things right again, take up his role as coach again and avoid the mistakes he had done in the past.

With the backing of Dunn, Maggie's career took off at incredulous speed, with her outclassing everyone and almost always knocking out her opponents in the first round.

Dunn is cautious. He doesn't want Maggie to be hurt. But where do you draw the line between protecting your boxer from getting hurt and allowing her to spread her wings and progress through the classes? What decides if a life is lived meaningfully, despite the physical hurt that comes in the process?

This movie tracks the rise and fall of Maggie's career with startling rawness and intensity. Clint Eastwood betters his previous directorial+acting role in Mystic River, brewing up this masterpiece where the emotional highs are sky high, and emotional lows are, well, rock-bottom. It's a pretty long movie, there's alot being told and the detail may overwhelm you, but it's all worth it.

I'm not going to spoiler it for you. You just gotta watch it.