Million Dollar Baby

Million Dollar Baby affected me in ways I can’t seem to explain. I saw it last night with Ginny and Jamie and have not stopped thinking about it since.

I should start off by pointing out that I love Clint Eastwood wholly and unabashedly ever since I studied some of his work for a class in film school. I think the man is brilliant and wise, and he’s in the top five list of people I’d be honored to have lunch with someday.

But this film – it goes beyond that. I can’t say much about the plot without ruining the experience for you, and I’d much rather you all went and saw it yourselves, and felt it for yourselves. I will say that the cinematography is beautiful and spare, as is the score, and that I think it may be Eastwood’s best work as a director and as an actor. I think the character development is superb. I think Eastwood does such a good job here that there were times when I was uncomfortable watching, feeling like an intruder on someone else’s private moments. I think this film is more than deserving of any awards it may win, with the possible exception of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for which Morgan Freeman was nominated. Don’t get me wrong – I love Morgan Freeman and I think he’s a great actor – but I didn’t see this role as a major breakout performance for him. A lot of people have compared it to his performance in The Shawshank Redemption, and I’d have to agree with them.

I think you should all drop whatever you’re doing and go see it sooner rather than later, and I think I’ll plan to come back and write more about it when I’m ready – whenever that might be.

Posted in FYI

10 Replies to “Million Dollar Baby”

  1. there was this big article in the Reader about how there is a big SECRET and how the SECRET is spawning protests. and since i don’t even read more than a paragraph of movie reviews ahead of time before i see a movie, i wasn’t able to read the article.

    about the SECRET.

  2. Ya know… I thought it was good… like “it was cool for what it was, but it wasn’t all that” I liked it, but it wasn’t the greatest movie I’ve ever seen. I kinda felt the same way about Mystic River.

  3. jim.
    what are you talking about? …and who cares? If you clue me in on who might care (Okay, “Reader” readership – I don’t know what “the Reader” is) then I promise to uncover the article myself and research on my own.

    Ginny.
    Was it good for being a movie? Or, good for being a drama? (Is it a drama?) -or, good for a movie by Eastwood? Or good for Something To Do on a Sunday evening?
    I really don’t know but do you mean by, “for what is was”? In mi country, we say what it Is so I no understand “for what it was”.

    Lorie.
    Thanks. Hot iron right on the big toe.
    Drop Everything, she says.
    Here I was, ironing a shirt when my mouth’s suddenly agape, my pants at my ankles and a steaming iron flat and heavy on my bare foot. I certainly won’t be doing Anything sooner than later.
    You’ll just have to live with that now.

    …at least I’ll have time now to look into jim’s fking SECRET.
    :o/

    ;o)

  4. I agree, a terrific picture. Some of the best “father-daughter” scenes in recent cinema, I thought. That’s what I really loved about the film. She deserves best actress — I just wish that we could get out of this trend of women undergoing colossal physical transformations to get Oscar nominations…

  5. “what are you talking about? …and who cares? If you clue me in on who might care (Okay, “Reader” readership – I don’t know what “the Reader” is) then I promise to uncover the article myself and research on my own.”

    i’m not sure why I get insulted for posting in lorie’s journal. :-) how odd.

    The Reader is a chicago weekly paper. chicagoreader.com

  6. pardon if that sounded really crappy. apparently, it only took 2 beers to make me belligerent yesterday, so feel free to delete.

  7. “it was cool for what it was but it wasn’t all that” is a line from Sister Act 2… but what I meant I guess is that It was good for a movie. I didn’t feel like I’d wasted my time or money by watching it. But I didn’t think it was the greatest thing I’d ever seen. But as I’m sure Lorie will attest to, my judgement doesn’t go very far as to what is and what isn’t quality material… so I guess I just felt like commenting for the sake of a comment. :)

  8. I thought it was amazing… I mean, like, you felt like you were actually at the matches and stuff… I mean..it was awesome…

  9. I saw it last night. I loved it, and pretty much feel the same way you do. And I definitely agree with Hugo — those father-daughter scenes were so good they made this total Daddy’s Girl ball her freakin’ eyes out.

    That is all. :)

  10. …sorry jim – wasn’t insulting you. “who cares” just means that – of course, I’m not suggesting that I don’t care – but that evidenced in my asking for follow-up. I meant … well, people that care about secrets could have been been Fans, Industry People, Actors, Celebrity Columns… I wondered about which of those groups (or another) might have been who would be eager to uncover …whatever (or nothing) it might have been.

    The comments to Ginny were to reveal how little I knew about the whole thing and how, even reaching for questions, I had no jumping-off place.

    Sorry – I don’t try and be rude – I just go too fast and, though the answers and motivations are generally in what I type one often would have to spend waaaay too much time decoding and connecting to get it all. -and that’s not right.

    …but it’s me so it’s bound to happen again.

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