Million Dollar Baby

Released a little over a year after the grand success of his Oscar-winning feature MYSTIC RIVER, Clint Eastwood returns to the director's chair for MILLION DOLLAR BABY. Eastwood also stars, in the role of Frankie Dunn, a down-on-his-luck former boxing manager who spends the twilight years of his life running a small, dilapidated gym in downtown Los Angeles. Frankie's previous career was blighted by an injury to one of his prize fighters, Scrap (Morgan Freeman), who lost the sight in his right eye during a particularly brutal bout; Scrap now wiles away the hours working as a cleaner in Frankie's gym. Wary of similar occurrences being inflicted on the prestigious young talent that passes before him, Frankie lets a succession of great boxers slip through his fingers. But when the brash, confident young boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) strides into the gym, Frankie's life is irretrievably altered. Initially refusing to train Maggie due to her gender and age, Frankie relents when faced with her tenacity, spirit, and burning ambition. The combination of Maggie's talent and Frankie's tutelage paves the way for the adroit fighter to rise steadily through the ranks of women's boxing, with the unlikely coupling forming a genuinely touching bond in the process.



"Clint Eastwood's drama about a grizzled boxing trainer and a spunky young fighter is the best movie released by a major Hollywood studio this year."



"The film works on every level -- acting, direction and production -- as it tells its heartfelt story about human frailty and the power of redemption."
-- Paul Clinton, CNN



"Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank deliver a powerful one-two punch that will knock your socks off and hit you squarely in the heart."
-- Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, THEMOVIECHICKS.COM



"The kind of movie where you sit very quietly in the theater and are drawn deeply into lives that you care very much about."
-- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES