Million Dollar Baby

Last week I was constantly harrassed, strong-armed and quite frankly ordered by my clients, boxing class and girlfriend to go see, "Million Dollar Baby." So on Sunday evening I laced up the Timberland boots, and the Asian-Malaysian Munchkin (girlfriend) and I went stomping through the snow and ice on the mean crime-infested streets of Silver Sprung to make a 10:15 p.m. show. That's not true, Silver Sprung is almost disturbingly ordinary and suburban but for the domestic argument she and I had on the way to the cinema about whose fault it was we were running late (it was clearly her's.) Rest assured there will be no rap songs warning about the dangers of going to Whole Foods, Starbucks, Pottery Barn, or Border's in our neighborhood. It was, however, really as cold as a witch's titty outside.

Anyway, I was determined to end the daily annoying question of, "did you go see Million Dollar Baby yet?" For some reason people I know have this automatic assumption that if some sports related movie comes out, especially if it involves boxing or martial arts, I should be the first in line to go view it.

For those who have not seen the movie yet, I will not give away the so-called twisted ending. I will just convey my general opinons and thoughts. On that note, it sucked, just kidding. It was good, not great, just good. It certainly does not rank among the greatest boxing movies of all time, and it is definitely not worthy of an Academy award. But if you are a fan of boxing or just human drama, in general, you will like this movie. So I will give it two thumbs up. If you do not already know what the movie is about, basically it reflects the story of a down-trodden white trailer park girl who finds her way into the boxing gym with aspirations of becoming a world boxing champion. Hilary Swank plays the role of the female boxer, Maggie Fitzgerald, and Clint Eastwood who directs and also stars plays the role of her trainer, Frankie Dunn. Morgan Freeman, whose character I love, plays a has-been fighter named, Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris, now relegated to mopping floors and cleaning out spit buckets; sad, but true. You might be surprised at how many ex-fighters end up this way - in jail, or lying across the floor of a crack-house. Which reminds me, thank you mother for providing me with a college education. I love you mom. That concludes this public announcement, now back to the movie. There are some other characters that appear in the movie, but the only one I think worth mentioning is Danger Barch played by Jay Baruchel. This guy is a piece of work. He is a mentally disabled wanna-be fighter with two brain cells, one negative and the other positive with both fighting each other. But Danger is funny with the heart of a lion; how can you not like those personable qualities?

The most interesting things I think you will find out about boxing in this movie are the social dynamics and character of a boxing gym, the often shady business dealings between fighters, promoters and trainers, and the emotional core and substance of the people involved in the sport.

There, I said it, or in this case typed it, my thoughts in a nutshell.