Million Dollar Baby (2004 Clint Eastwood & prod)

F.X. Toole (Jerry Boyd) wrote 'Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner' which formed the basis for Paul Haggis' screenplay. Clint the director won Oscar, as did Hilary Swank - no argument from me - and Morgan Freeman. Any film with Freeman narrating is a shoe-in for the Oscars. It didn't get to BAFTA's list because the studio didn't send out any advance copies and hardly any of the voters saw it.

Clint - also nominated but losing out to Jamie Fox in Ray - warms up beautifully.

Tom Stern's widescreen photography is gloriously moodily lit, like an old black and white; Clint's score is good, with Kyle contributing some numbers (I guess those on the guitar). Edited by Eastwood regular Joel Cox, but the fights aren't over-edited but well choreographed.

A good exercise in holding back characters' back stories (in fact we never find out what happened to Frankie's wife nor why his daughter is estranged - only that he gets a new daughter). But Maggie is paralysed because of an illegal punch from her cowardly opponent (Lucia Rijker) and the fact that is never referred to and there's no retribution left us feeling unsatisfied, particularly as no matter how you look at it, it's a tragedy. Though lots of good stuff about it, it's never going to be one of my favourites, and maybe that's why.

Didn't recognise Jay Baruchel as 'Dangerous'. Also in there are Michael Pena and Margo Martindale.