Million Dollar Baby
Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) is headed toward the last legs of a career as a boxing trainer. His last boxer just left with a new manager. All he has left is the gym he runs with his friend Scrap (Morgan Freeman). A female boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) is eager to be trained by Frankie, but he refuses. So in the corner, she trained and trained until finally, Frankie saw some promise in her. With his help, she becomes the best female boxer in the country. But when tragedy occurs during an international match, Maggie and Frankie together make the most important decision of their lives.

While advertised as a boxing film, the movie is so much more. It takes a lot of character development to build the complexity Million Dollar Baby is able to do, and Eastwood, Freeman, and Swank pass with flying colors, breathing life to a not-so-showy script. Coming in, all three lives were incomplete, needing that final piece to be happy, and together, they manage to complete it in their own way. Eastwood's direction in the film is excellent, showing off the continued high quality of his work. It may not be the best picture of the year (Oscar voters may say differently) but it is certainly one of the best and most emotionally fulfilling. 3.5 stars