I finally rented "Million Dollar Baby" just because good old Clint Eastwood is in the movie. I have to say I was entertained with the dialogue going on between Clint and Morgan Freeman. Clint had a lot of great lines that were actually quite funny in this tragic motion picture.
Somewhere down the line, I had gotten the impression it was a female Rocky story. Hilary Swank plays Maggie Fitzgerald a female boxer who seeks Clint's character Frankie Dunn to train her. After lots of harassment (which reminds me of Clint's line from "The Gauntlet", "Nag, Nag, Nag!"), he does train her and she gets a title fight. Right there we should have gotten a great Rocky like fight scene of triumph, but all we the viewers got was tragedy.
I don't want to ruin the movie for those of you who haven't seen it. After all it was a great movie in the sense the acting was outstanding, and the characters were brilliant, but I personally like a happy ending. Maybe it's just the optimist in me, but I like movies that inspire, encourage, or generally put me in a good mood.
The movie fails in the one respect for me that it doesn't end up anywhere. It's a very interesting heart wrenching ride that lands no where. More and more movies are ending in despair lately. I guess it's a trend. For instance Clint's character believes in God, and goes to Church everyday, apparently trying to make up for a sin in his past. I almost expected an ending where his character might at least find some sort of inspiration from God, or that he might settle the issue he felt he needed forgiveness for. Apparently, he had a big problem with his daughter that caused this guilt. That issue was never resolved. Clint's last action on this movie will shock you as well as discourage you. I won't tell you what it was, but a lot of people are going to or have already found it morally disturbing.
This isn't the only movie or even TV show I've seen lately that ends tragically. Is Hollywood becoming so filled with despair that they can no longer create a story of encouragement or inspiration?
The bottom line is the movie is great technically and entertaining for a while till you get closer to the ending, but personally I hate watching anything that makes me feel worse than before I started watching. Too bad there wasn't a rerun of "Any Which Way But Loose" on.
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