Ever since she saw it in theaters, my little sister's been telling me over and over that I've got to see
Million Dollar Baby, because it's one of the best movies she's ever seen. Finally she got the DVD, and I watched it.
Meh.
I certainly can't say it's a bad movie- it's close enough to flawless for my tastes. But if you aim low, and then hit your mark, you achieve low. Yay for pointlessness! The acting was perfect. The purpose of acting in this style is to convince the audience of the characters.
ME: Okay, Clint and all, you've convinced me. Now what?
EASTWOOD: That's it.
ME: What do you mean, that's it? Aren't you going to at least give me an interesting plot to think about? The one you're using is predictable and obvious!
EASTWOOD: Ah, but it has a sad ending. Everyone loves believing in sad endings.
ME: Hm. See, I believe the world of your story, and I understand the story, and I wasn't surprised at all by it, and I don't love it.
EASTWOOD: Ah, good! We've caused controversy, maybe?
ME: No. I just don't care and I'm getting really bored.
EASTWOOD: In that case, watch this!
[shuts off all the lights and turns on a weak flashlight]
EASTWOOD: Pretty cool, huh? Now we can pretend this is a
sophisticated story! See, if no one can actually see what's going on, they won't notice how conventional the story is, and will assume it's really artsy. And I get hailed as a visionary director!
ME: Who said that? Where are you? [bump, trip]
There are some twists, but none that surprise even the slightest bit.
Spoiler:For instance, can there be anyone watching that final fight scene who doesn't know, with complete certainty, that it's going to go terribly wrong? It's written so by-the-book that you can read it like one: First they drag out the scenes much too long so that it'll feel like a climax, then they make it go well much too easily to lull you into a false sense of security.
We all know these writing tricks, we all expect them, and I for one couldn't feel very interested in them. After that scene, the movie loses all momentum and left me wishing it would end quickly so I wouldn't have to sit through all the nothingness.
And that's what it is by that point. They don't really play anything for the emotions like they could because that would damage the style they're going for. So they just present the plot points and drag out the scenes so much to a ridiculous (and very annoying) degree. Don't they have an editor?
In short, I just don't get it. What's the point?
