All-star cast anchors Eastwood's latest

The problem with reviewing Clint Eastwood's dark and powerful film, "Million Dollar Baby," is that I'd have to talk a lot about its ending for you to understand how I really feel about the movie.\nDon't worry; I'm not going to do that. I'll simply say this is a deep and high-quality film that should be seen as a virginal experience. The less you know about this movie, the more you're probably going like it, or at least appreciate what it's trying to do. \nEastwood, in addition to his role as director ("Baby" feels and looks similar to Eastwood's last work, the outstanding "Mystic River"), stars as Frankie, a weathered boxing trainer and manager who owns a small, seedy gym in Los Angeles. Scrap (Morgan Freeman), an old boxer Frankie managed, works in the gym as an assistant to Frankie and serves as our narrator of the film.\nScrap sees heart and determination in Maggie Fitzgerald (played with heart-shattering grace by Hilary Swank), a starry-eyed, poor girl from rural Missouri. The only thing Maggie wants more than to become a boxer is to have Frankie train her. Of course, being the old-timer Frankie is, he's hesitant ("I don't train girls," Eastwood blurts out constantly, in a more gravelly voice than usual, even for him). But once he agrees, he forges a bond with her and looks after her like the daughter he has lost contact with long ago. \nThis isn't a sports movie; it's a threefold character study. Its triumphs and failures are not emphasized within the four corners of a boxing ring. We come to know Frankie, Maggie and Scrap, we care for them and we want to know more.\nBut our attachment makes it a difficult film to walk away from. The thing I struggled to convince myself of at the end of "Baby" is that this is a film that needs to be judged for what it is; for the world it creates and for what its characters do. Don't judge it for what you want the film to be or what you wish its characters would do. It's a tough thing to reconcile, especially if it causes you to feel troubled or at odds with the director or screenwriter. \nIt bears mentioning, I suppose, that when the Oscar nominations were announced last Tuesday, "Million Dollar Baby" picked up a more-than-deserving handful. It's a best picture and best director nominee, and all three actors have nods. And if Morgan Freeman doesn't win an Oscar for this flawless performance, I will shun the Academy forever.