Million Dollar Baby

A film set in a boxing gym in Los Angeles. Frankie is an old trainer. He has a gym and a good fighter, and never puts him in a risky bout; the fighter finally goes to another manager. Maggie is thirty-one and waits tables. She comes to the gym and asks Frankie to train her; he says he does not train women. She comes anyway. Every day, working on her own, and does not give up. Frankie finally agrees. From there the film is a rise. Small bouts, quick wins, money and a tour in Europe. The narrative is also about a family. Maggie's own family comes to her only for money; Frankie has a daughter he does not see and his letters come back. What the narrative is interested in is not boxing but what comes after: the last third moves to an entirely different subject and takes place in a hospital room. The decision taken there caused a large argument when the film came out and some groups campaigned against it. The narrator is Frankie's old friend Scrap, who lost an eye in a bout himself and lives at the gym. The source is the stories of a boxing trainer who wrote under the name F. X. Toole. The film won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Director, Actress and Supporting Actor. Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman are in the cast. Clint Eastwood directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes plainly told, heavy drama. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a sports film; the narrative changes genre completely in the last section and the ending is hard.