Film Review, no charge

I just got back from Million Dollar Baby. With serious reservations I recommend the film. There is a twist in the film, so I will keep my comments limited, although those really interested in seeing the film might not want to read to the end of this post. The acting is top notch and the relationship between Clint Eastwood's character and Hillary Swank's is well developed and often touching. The film is also surprisingly funny with the lively exchange between the various characters. On the downside, the Hillary Swank's hillbilly family is straight out of "Cletus the Slackjawed Yokel" of The Simpsons fame. Total stereotype. Also, there is a priest character who is wholly (holy?) unconvincing, and at the crucial moment of the film has nothing positive to say to a morally conflicted Clint Eastwood. He has no comfort and cannot develop a positive ethic for Eastwood to follow. The ultimate failing of the film, I believe, is moral, not artistic, although the two cannot really be separated. The film ends up wallowing in the culture of death, denying that there is inherent value in human life.  Thus the film fails to present an ennobling or edifying view of the world.