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</script></div>{/googleAds}What starts out feeling like a scrawny little run-of-the-mill sports movie with a wimpy title, actually goes the distance to end up as one of 2004's best films. Based on a short story, Rope Burns, from the collection of writings by author F.X. Toole, Million Dollar Baby is strong in nearly every respect. From Paul Haggis' screen adaptation, to Clint Eastwood's masterful direction, to the career performances of Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman and Eastwood himself, this film becomes an instant contender for Academy gold. If you go see one movie this year, make sure it's Million Dollar Baby. You won't be disappointed.

That's not to say that Million Dollar Baby is the next feel-good inspirational sports movie guaranteed to make you dust off the ol' sneakers. It's probably more accurate to classify the movie as a deep, dark, soul-stirring drama that happens to have sports at its core. It's less about sports and more about well-developed characters and a masterfully told tale. It's a love story about a man disowned by his daughter who finds a replacement in the form of a young girl who is trying to make her mark in the world of boxing. It's not a love story in the respect of a man loving a woman, but rather in the respect of a father loving his daughter.

Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) is a washed-up, grizzly old boxing trainer and owner of the Hit Pit, a stinky, run down boxing gym in the shadow of downtown Los Angeles. It's hard to tell if Frankie has more wrinkles on his leathery face or more excess emotional baggage in his soul. Somehow hoping to be forgiven for his neglected relationship with his daughter and a devastating choice he made with one of his boxers many years ago, Frankie has attended mass every day for the past 23 years. His only friend is a washed up former boxer named Eddie "Scrap" Dupris (Morgan Freeman), who now sleeps on a cot in the gym in exchange for puttering around the place with a mop and a bucket. Frankie and Scrap have been friends for many years but you wouldn't know it from listening to the two. They bicker like an old married couple, but neither has anyone in their lives but each other. They've each had equal disappointment in their experiences and both seem to get comfort from pointing out each other's shortcomings. They live mutually miserable lives.

Frankie is one of the best trainers around but he's too overprotective to recognize when a fighter is ready for a title bout. He recently lost his best fighter to another trainer, so naturally he's in no mood to have anything to do with the 31-year-old Maggie (Hilary Swank) who's prepaid for six months gym dues and nags Frankie to be her trainer. Frankie thinks Maggie's too old to make a splash in the boxing ring, besides Frankie's a traditionalist. He disagrees with the basic premise of a woman fighting. But Maggie refuses to take no for an answer. Trying to overcome her white trash roots, Maggie sees boxing as her way to distance herself from her upbringing and eventually convinces Frankie to train her.

Swank throws her acting talent in the Oscar ring with her performance as Maggie. Besides training for several hours a day for weeks to buff up for the role (Hilary did all her own fight scenes for the movie), it's evident that she also was able to enter the mind and psyche of a female boxer. She becomes a hero for anyone who has wanted to overcome a tough past. She begs for our sympathy with her dedication to becoming a successful boxer. Maggie's unselfishness becomes evident in one memorable scene when she tries to help her mother with her finances. Rather than graciously accepting her daughter's help, she pitifully quips "you shouldn't have done this. Now the government's going to find out and they'll stop my welfare. And I can't live without my welfare".

Unbeknownst to Frankie, Maggie entering the gym is a turning point in his life, as well as being a turning point in the movie. It is a chance for him to redeem himself. He can reverse his past career mistakes as well as correct his misgivings as a father. The story now becomes not about boxing, but about a man reckoning his past. Frankie realizes that, just like in boxing, sometimes you have to do the opposite of what seems natural. To hit with the left hand, a boxer must push off with the right foot. To rekindle his relationship with his daughter, Frankie must learn to love Maggie.

Million Dollar Baby tells a story that will truly move your soul and leave a lasting impression. There's nothing light-hearted about it, so be prepared. But then again, getting redemption is sometimes tough and takes a lot of work. Any fighter can lose ONE fight.

DVD Details:

Screen formats: Widescreen Anamorphic 2.35:1

Subtitles: Spanish; French; Closed Captioned

Language and Sound: English: Dolby Digital 5.1; French: Dolby Digital 5.1

Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access; trailer; roundtable with cast; featurette; behind-the-scenes.

* Disc 1
o Movie in English and French (Dubbed in Quebec)
o Theatrical Trailer - Original theatrical trailer.
* Disc 2 - Special Features
o James Lipton Takes on Three - Very intimate, simple and interesting 25-minute roundtable discussion hosted by Inside the Actor's Studio James Lipton. He talks with Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Hilary Swank on the morning after the Academy Awards. They discuss everything from their feelings after having won four Oscars to what brought Hilary to Hollywood to their philosophies of acting. The most interesting conversation in this featurette is Freeman discussing his folk and modern dance roots.
o The Producers' Round 15 - 13-minute segment with Million Dollar Baby producer Albert S. Ruddy. The featurette is a well produced and intriguing piece with interview clips of Ruddy, producer Tom Rosenberg, and screenwriter Paul Haggis as they discuss the process of bringing F.X. Toole's Rope Burns to the big screen as Million Dollar Baby.
o Born to Fight - 20-minute featurette that begins with a music-to-the-ears Morgan Freeman voice-over Then through a series of interesting talking head vignettes and movie clips, we get an in-depth examination of Baby's characters delivered by the actors who portrayed them in the movie. The most interesting discussion comes from real-life boxer Lucia Rijker who played "Billie the Blue Bear". She talks about what it's like to be a boxer and how Maggie's life in the movie is patterned from her own experiences, including a time early in her career when she bought her unappreciative mother a house.
* Disc 3 - Million Dollar Baby CD Soundtrack - Music composed by Clint Eastwood and performed by his son Kyle Eastwood.

Number of discs: 3 - Keepcase packaging.

Suprisingly missing from the Million Dollar Baby 3-disc Deluxe Edition is a film commentary. Although the featurettes include extensive interviews with loads of insight from the film's principals, it would have been a bonus to hear Eastwood's comments and enlightenment about certain scenes and passages of the movie.

{pgomakase}