Sucker Punched: Million Dollar Baby

By Jonathan Berohn

Unfortunately for me, I don’t get to the movie theater as much as I’d like to any more.  With 2 young kids of movie watching age at home, if it doesn’t have animation or witches and wizards, I’m probably going to have to wait for it on DVD.

After all the hype, rave reviews, and 4 Academy Awards—including Best Picture—my wife and I eagerly awaited the DVD release of Million Dollar Baby so we could see what everyone was so thrilled about.  After watching the movie, though, I’m just as puzzled as I was before I saw it.

The Acting

My wife liked the character portrayals in the movie, but, save Hilary Swank, I found the acting to be thoroughly typical.  By that I mean Clint Eastwood once again plays Clint Eastwood, and Morgan Freeman plays the same sidekick character he’s been playing since Shawshank Redemption.  They both play these roles well, mind you, but they are hardly innovative or remarkable.  Hillary Swank does do a very good job, but she’s hardly enough to make up for the plot problems that I’ll get to next.

The Story

I will confess that I had an inkling of the surprise ending that was supposed to be shocking.  How anyone could sit through that movie, though, and not figure out what was coming is beyond me.  The foreshadowing is about as subtle as—to stick with the idiom—a punch in the mouth.  The whole story, in fact, plays out exactly like you would expect if you’ve ever seen a movie before.  Young protégé wants a mentor; mentor says no; protégé persists…you can guess the rest I’m sure.  I’m also sure if you ever want to demonstrate how to overuse foreshadowing, Million Dollar Baby is a great example to use.

The Boxing

OK—I could almost live with the absurd ploy—OK, who am I kidding—not really.  But to make matters worse, the boxing scenes in the film are just absurd.  Here we have a film where the gritty realism is supposed to make us really feel for the characters, then all of a sudden we’re warped into the WWE for the climactic fight where Swank’s opponent is dirtier than Mike Tyson ever dreamed of being.  The cartoonish nature of the violence here just soured me on the whole movie.