Film Review: Million dollar baby

Just when you think Clint Eastwood will retire in the annals of history as a great movie star and director, he produces another tour de force with Million Dollar Baby. Here he plays Frankie Dunn, a boxing trainer (and renowned cut man) who runs a seedy downtown gym, full of chancers and downbeats. He shares this space with his long-time friend Scrap-Iron Dupris (Morgan Freeman), who keeps the gym clean, and helps to train the motley array of losers working out.

He's managing a fighter who has been steadily improving, and is desperate to challenge the World Champion. Frankie is reticent to enter him, so the boxer leaves him for another manager, who can get him the title bout. This affects Frankie deeply, and he distracts himself from loneliness and rejection by learning Gaelic. Then one day Maggie (Hilary Swank) comes to the gym, looking for someone to train her. Frankie refuses to take her on, on the grounds that she's a girl.

It is clear that Maggie helps to shore up the gap in his life left by his estranged daughter, who continues to return his mails. It's a gap the church can't fill for him either, and he's reluctant even to let Maggie in. The long line of boxers he takes so far towards success, but can't let them reach the heights, in case they leave him .. well, they all leave him. To lose a second daughter would be heartbreak for him, so he resists her enquiries. In the end though her persistence and enthusiasm force his hand, and he relents.

So then you have a story about her climb to success, but it has very little to do with that, it's about how the two individuals learn to trust each other, while sparring emotionally with each other all the time. They have similarities – she too is estranged from her family, in that they are white trash looking to scam benefit, while she has the mark of one of life's fighters written all over her.

Eastwood finds a greater movie in himself than his seventy-something years would suggest. He's still tough as old boots, but with the creased lines of experience to make a role like this work. He is still playing a man's man, a laconic, wise-cracking hero stunted emotionally, but inwardly strong. His guilt/shame at his previous failings sits just beneath his surface often making him appear cold, something that becomes less apparent as their relationship develops.

Morgan Freeman is sensational as "Scrap", the also-ran, the sad voice of someone who has nothing else in his life but a back room at the gym to live in, a number of his own fight stories, and a boxing accident that was the only thing to ever knock the stuffing out of him. His narrative throughout the movie displays a war-weary wisdom, and creates a deadpan canvas for the characters to paint on.

But Swank steals the show; despite everything going on in her life, she is both heroic and inspiring, and proof that with the right attitude and belief, you can be anything you want. She thoroughly deserved her Oscar for this performance (her second), and when you line her up against Hollywood's other leading women, it's difficult to see who else could challenge her as a better actress right now.

Cinematographer Tom Stern creates a low-lit feel, almost monochromatic at times, that helps to make the locations appear more seedy, and forces us to focus on script and characters on show. Behind all this there's a lovely score, which is never intrusive, and, I was surprised to learn was created by Clint himself.

This film was released in January (in the UK), but it's going to take some beating this year – I cannot imagine feeling so strongly about a movie in the next 12 months. While last year's favourite (Eternal Sunshine..) has a lot to offer, this film really is in the mould of Godfather, Shawshank, Raging Bull, Citizen Kane, Casablanca et al.

Immense in every department (Direction, Cinematography, Score, Screenplay, and of course heavyweight acting) - if you only rent one movie this year, make it this one. You won't be left wanting – I've seen it twice, and the second time only intensified both my emotions and the experience. 9/10.