Flashback Friday: Million Dollar Baby (2004)

By: Kameron McBride

I ended up with a DVD copy of Million Dollar Baby through a bizarre series of events. And by that I mean it was meant as a joke gift for my dad-don't worry, he actually got Game of Thrones- and I ended up keeping the disc after he got his real gift.

The movie sat in my room for awhile like a molded banana, occasionally I would catch a whiff of it and remember it was there but I mostly just avoided it. Eventually I just watched it because—I don't know—it seemed wrong not to.

Anyway the film tells starts out with a trainer named Frankie (Eastwood) who we see is working with a new fighter. Frankie runs his own gym where he trains boxers and employs Eddie "Scrap–Iron" Dupris (Morgan Freeman). Frankie is grooming "Big" Willie Little (Mike Colter) for a title fight, however Little runs off to another manager to get his real title shot. Around the same time a woman named Maggie (Hillary Swank) begins to come to Frankie's gym, trying to get him to train her. Initially Frankie refuses, claiming that "he doesn't train girls." Upon watching the first few rounds of Maggie's first fight, however, Frankie changes his mind and takes her under his wing.

My first impression of this movie is to just cringe at the dialogue in this movie. It all just sounds so forced. The only way it could be more explicit is if he subliminally hid an Oscar statue in every frame of the film. And what's shocking is that the Academy actually bought it! This film won Oscars for Best Picture, Actor, Actress and Supporting Actor despite being heavier than an elephant. I'm surprised I could even lift the disc the dialogue is so saturated.

Every character in the film just feels uninteresting. We already know everything we need when we first meet every character in the movie and we learn absolutely nothing new. Eastwood becomes more sentimental I guess and he cares about Swank more than he does his other people but ultimately what do we learn about Eastwood? Not that much, by my count.

And it's not like Eastwood isn't capable of delivering somewhat interesting characters. Unforgiven showed us a dynamic look at the nature of violence and Mystic River had a lot going for it. Million Dollar Baby, however, just feels flat to me.

Then I figured it out, the problem may not have been Eastwood as much as it was Paul Haggis, who wrote the screenplay. Haggis also directed Crash, the 2006 winner for Best Picture. In both cases Haggis seems to be of the opinion that emotions are best played out explicitly on–screen, which is fine but I think we could do with some more complex characters. Every character is an archetype and they aren't utilized well. I never feel connected to any character in the film and when Maggie's family shows up it only becomes worse. They probably could have saved money by just placing cardboard cutouts in their place for all the interest they provide.

I will admit the twist, if you want to call it that, halfway through the film is kind of clever but it's probably already been spoiled for you and it ultimately turns the movie into two pieces that feel entirely unrelated.

What exactly is the appeal to this movie? The color is grimy and unappealing, the characters are all bland and one–dimensional and everything is so damn depressing that there's nothing to latch onto. For goodness sake Eastwood's character at the beginning of Gran Torino is more likeable than anything in Million Dollar Baby.

My real shock is how universally liked this movie appears to be. Ebert himself called it a "masterpiece." I could get why people might find the movie endearing or even maybe an interesting take on the sports film but it's certainly nothing special. It's an okay movie that is more interesting than your average boxing movie but I really never felt this deserved the high praise I remember it receiving upon release.