Million Dollar Baby

I didn't find this to be a LOT better than Mystic River, but then, I really, really liked that movie.

Clint Eastwood's acting has a mirror-like quality to it; you get out of his performance what you want to read into it. He's not going to force you into a particular interpretation of his character by overacting. His voice is nearly absent in some scenes.

I could see this film, in other hands, having been overly dramaticized or weepy. That, or it could have just been about boxing. Eastwood never really dwells on any character or event long enough to set it apart from the rest of the film, thereby singling it out as a particularly tearjerking moment (except maybe the penultimate scene, but not so much so even then). In the same way, there aren't any really lengthy shots anywhere, and the cuts are sometimes so frequent as to seem like a mistake.

Rather than trying to drive any particular point home, Eastwood tells the story with a lighthanded touch and lets you ponder the themes and situations after you've left the theater. The characters get to you not because they're so expressive, but because their mostly impassive appearances imply hidden depths that, for the most part, are not made explicit.

These are, for Hollywood characters, very unglamorous people, but the production fits them. I love Eastwood's minimal style, as both director and music composer. Hopefully he'll stick around for a long time to come.