Million Dollar Baby

— SPOILER ALERT – Spoilers Below! —

By now, the spoilers must have reached your ears. And the backlash has already begun; expect to see protests at the Oscars by bible-thumpers and right-to-lifers. What happens at the end of this movie is not something you would expect out of Hollywood – that land of Rocky Balboa moments; the chewy center of feel-good eye-candy.

It starts out as a regular boxing movie, and becomes a slow-burning and agonizing wait for the final solution. A second viewing is required to decide if the actions of the protagonists are justified. When the movie ends, you’re left shaking your head, saying, ‘I can’t believe it ended like that’. The audience leaves the theater stricken and uneasy.

Is Clint Eastwood courting controversy for controversy’s sake? In the land where for the vocal majority, life begins at conception, the hero’s decision is absolutely unthinkable. Eastwood performs a coup-de-grace when he could have opted for a Ron Howard ending, and it is a breath of fresh air.

It is not the movie I went to see, but it proved much more interesting than the one I was expecting. This movie is not Cinderella Man, which is a … Ron Howard movie.