Cady's Take:

Clint Eastwood is Frankie Dunn, a trainer and manager who owns a ramshackle gym in downtown L.A. named the Hit Pit. Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) is a 31-year-old, self-described piece of "trash" whose dream is to become a prize-winning boxer. Though Frankie has made it clear he doesn't "train girlies", with the help of the gym's custodian Eddie Scrap (Morgan Freeman), a former prizefighter, Maggie wears Frankie down. To his great surprise, she may well be the most talented boxer he's ever worked with.

The movie is in no hurry getting started. But by the time Frankie and Maggie begin training in earnest, we are completely invested in their story, willing to go with it no matter where it takes us. But make no mistake about it; Million Dollar Baby is not just a boxing film. At its core, this is a story of human bonding. Here we explore how families come in all shapes and sizes as Frankie fills a paternal void in Maggie's in the life, and she becomes a substitute for his estranged daughter.

Swank is simply tremendous but it's Eastwood who is the film's soul. At 74 Clint continues to find ways to surprise audiences. "Baby" is completely absorbing and at the same time genuinely upsetting, and haunting. One brave piece of work.

Let me say for the record that I believe a full 85% of movies would be greatly improved simply by having Morgan Freeman narrate them. There is something about his voice; a sadness and a wisdom that makes us feel the story rather than feel the story is being told to us.

Who does not know what "Million Dollar Baby" is about by now? Very few of you, I'm sure. Allow me then to focus on the performances. Hillary Swank, so powerful in her first Oscar-winning performance as a transsexual in "Boys Don't Cry" once again brings us a fully flushed character, an extremely three-dimensional portrayal - we know this girl. Her Maggie Fitzgerald has only one dream: to become a boxer, and she does this with the help of Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) who comes to believe in her and who also comes to love her as a daughter. This is punctuated by a sub-plot involving Frankie's estranged family, including a daughter he hasn't seen in 20 years.

Of course, I cannot fail to mention Morgan Freeman as Scrap, a former boxer who now cleans up (and lives in) Frankie's gym. Besides providing a backbone through the narration, Freeman fills each scene he is in with an understanding that we somehow absorb. He makes the other characters emotionally accessible. He earned his Academy Award.

If you haven't seen it, rent it, and if you have, rent it again! This is what great sports movies are all about - the characters, not the sport itself. Sometimes I find the metaphor trite. Eastwood makes it work as both director and actor. And if you do watch it, don't forget to listen to the score - he wrote that himself.