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Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Babylooks likely to face off with Sideways and The Aviator for the Best Picture award at the Oscars on February 27th. It's getting some of the year's biggest raves.

But it's also likely to face off with Kinsey as the film most heavily protested by the religious press. That's largely because of its subject matter. At first, it looks like a boxing movie, but it soon develops into something else entirely.

If you want to have the controversial events in the second half of the movie spoiled for you, read almost any published review of the film. If you'd rather not know, you can proceed here without worry about spoilers.

Million Dollar Baby will provide plenty of material for discussion and debate among viewers, especially Christian viewers. Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) is a boxing trainer and "cut man." When a fighter is wounded, Frankie steps into the ring, wipes up the blood, resets broken bones, and gauges how much more they can take. His assistant, Scrap-Iron (Morgan Freeman) is something of a philosopher, having had years to consider the "whys" and "hows" of boxing after an injury forced him into retirement. The challenge facing them is the desire of Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) to become Frankie's first female trainee, and to take her to a championship match.

The film is far more poetic and contemplative than most sports-oriented films, and its characters end up struggling in a fight far more difficult than a title match. A third act plot twist gives the film its emotional "punch." And while Million Dollar Baby deserves the praise it is earning on all critical fronts for its superb performances and artful scripting, its characters come to conclusions that demonstrate a sorely flawed sense of ethics. As a result, religious press critics in particular are sure to make a fuss over the film in the coming weeks.

We should object when the characters, driven by fear and despair, take matters into their own misguided hands; their decision is as rash as the crime committed by Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn) in Eastwood's last Oscar contender, Mystic River. A desirable end does not justify deplorable means. Those final decisions, while understandable and in some ways appealing, demonstrate a failure of hope, a lack of faith, a collapse of courage, and the loss of an opportunity for God to work wonders. In boxing terms, Frankie would say he just "stepped into the punch," but I say he "threw in the towel." And yet, viewers may still feel compassion for Frankie, a spiritual fighter who has been "stripped down to the bare wood," despairing because he feels God has abandoned him.

My full review is at Christianity Today Movies.

David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) says, "While the film packs quite a punch, including heavyweight performances from Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, and a textured screenplay by Paul Haggis … the movie's morally problematic ending may leave many Catholic viewers feeling emotionally against the ropes. Eastwood is no stranger to dark stories wrought with complex moral questions—and this one ends on a fatalistic note. [Million Dollar Baby] is not as much about boxing as it is about moral wrestling within the arena of the human soul."

Mainstream critics are hailing it as a "masterpiece."

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Million Dollar Baby isn't the only film to receive a harsh judgment from religious press critics this week. The new film from Alejandro Amenabar, is earning high praise for its artistry, but harsh criticism for a conclusion that condones a "mercy killing."

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January (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49