Million Dollar Baby

Million Dollar Baby is an impressive minimalistic chamber drama, but it didn’t appeal to me as much as the more emotionally diverse A Perfect World. Poor Martin Scorsese, who was so successful with every detail of his perfectionistic, though somewhat reserved The Aviator. It must have been a painful blow for him to have his Oscar taken by someone who merely locked himself in a gym with three actors for a few days. Million Dollar Baby is built on a strong subject, monologue gems by Morgan Freeman and a masterful acting performance by Hilary Swank. Clint Eastwood himself merely poses as a tough guy with a troubled soul and got an Oscar nomination for best actor based solely on his charisma, which isn’t fair. Freeman is fine, though he’s only being himself instead of doing any great acting. The cinematography and directing are miraculous given the limited budget. A very nice little film. Simpler and more modest than Mystic River, but just as powerful. (11/04/2005)

An incredibly intense film of immense emotion, touching, comforting, and chilling, that nails you to your seat and doesn't let go until the final catharsis. Due to its emotional charge, it will never leave my mind, especially thanks to the captivating shadowplay that shrouds the gymnasium and the three flawless performances that impressively stand out from it. (29/06/2005)

So I finally caught up on on this film that I've been putting off for a long time due to ignoring women in martial arts and I'm pleasantly surprised. Weaker than Rocky better than Warrior. Clint Eastwood steals the whole film for himself, again playing the typical curmudgeon as in Gran Torino and winning me over, Hillary Swank is surprisingly good, though I didn't cheer or scream extra in the fights, and the ending is a bit too far-fetched; strong but surprisingly, it left me cold. I had fun. 80% (08/01/2016)

Million Dollar Baby is first and foremost a film that can mount real and infinitely varied human emotions onto a self-servingly moving and academically focused story. A hypnotic and intimate film where there is no talking, only listening in humility to a trio of diverse characters, carved by their own cruel pasts and mutual encounters, who for two hours become inseparable heralds of life's joys, hardships and deepest sorrow. It's not a film about boxing, it's a film about life – how it is understood by people who have been through something and know what is worth working, sweating, breathing and sinning for. We should listen to it. 95% (17/04/2016)

It took me a long, long time to get into this film, because I felt that Eastwood was emotionally blackmailing me in the end. If only! This is one of the best films about human desire, courage without boundaries and especially the right to deal with one's life according to one's best knowledge and conscience. In the words of Piergiorgio Welby: "man has a right to life, but does not mean that man must live it at all costs", and I would see this as the main mission of Eastwood's work (and I would recommend it to all Catholics). Bravo Clint, bravo Hilary! (28/04/2007)