A gruff man named “Frankie” (Clint Eastwood) operates a boxing gym alongside his dependable partner, “Eddie” (Morgan Freeman). The gym is populated by guys who seem to be going through the motions, like "Berry" (Anthony Mackie), with the possible exception of a young boxer called “Barch” (Jay Baruchel), who believes he’s an elite welterweight despite being clearly outmatched. One day, a girl appears at the gym. “Fran…

It's hard to deny that Million Dollar Baby is skillfully made, though it veers sharply into very difficult and unexpected territory. I’ll probably be criticized for this opinion, but I found it to be a truly unpleasant film experience. Initially, I was charmed by the story of Maggie Fitzgerald and her positive influence on Frankie Dunn; their relationship felt genuinely heartwarming. However, the dramatic shift in th…

I’m genuinely blown away by how remarkably good *Million Dollar Baby* is. I generally avoid learning much about movies beforehand—just enough to confirm they aren't part of a series, check the length, and see the genre—so I was going in expecting a standard sports movie with some predictable elements, but it turns out to be far more than that. It’s profoundly moving and has a lasting effect that completely cau…

Clint Eastwood directed “Million Dollar Baby,” which came out in 2004. The movie features Eastwood as a grumpy boxing trainer who owns a gym for working-class people in Los Angeles; one of his former boxers (Morgan Freeman) helps him run the place and serves as the film’s narrator. Hilary Swank plays a waitress from rural Missouri who asks Frankie (Eastwood) to train her, but he initially declines, saying she's too o…