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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Million Dollar Baby
Warner Bros.


7.7

based on 39 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 374 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for violence, some disturbing images, thematic material and language

Starring Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel, Mike Colter, Lucia Rijker, Brian F. O'Byrne, Anthony Mackie, and Margo Martindale

Two retired boxers who run a Los Angeles gym are caught off guard when a woman approaches them with her dream of stepping into the ring.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Paul Haggis F.X. Toole (stories)
DIRECTED BY:	Clint Eastwood
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 12, 2005 Theatrical: December 15, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	132 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Winner of four Academy Awards (out of a total of 7 nominations for 2004), including Best Picture, Director (Eastwood), Lead Actress (Swank) and Supporting Actor (Freeman).

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Under Eastwood's painstakingly stripped-down direction -- his filmmaking has become the cinematic equivalent of Hemingway's spare though precise prose -- the story emerges as that rarest of birds, an uplifting tragedy.

100

Variety Todd McCarthy

Staying at the top of his game when most of his contemporaries have long since hung up their gloves, Clint Eastwood delivers another knockout punch with Million Dollar Baby.

100

Newsweek David Ansen

Eastwood takes the audience to raw, profoundly moving places. If you fear strong emotions, this is not for you. But if you want to see Hollywood filmmaking at its most potent, Eastwood has delivered the real deal.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Achieves a mellowness and melancholy that recalls the jazzy dissonance of director (and here, composer) Eastwood's best work: "The Outlaw Josey Wales," "Bird," "Unforgiven" and "Mystic River."

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Perhaps the director's most touching, most elegiac work yet, Million Dollar Baby is a film that does both the expected and the unexpected, that has the nerve and the will to be as pitiless as it is sentimental.

100

The New York Times Dana Stevens

With its careful, unassuming naturalism, its visual thrift and its emotional directness, Million Dollar Baby feels at once contemporary and classical, a work of utter mastery that at the same time has nothing in particular to prove.

100

The New Yorker David Denby

Has a beautifully modulated sadness that's almost musical. Eastwood once made a movie about Charlie Parker ("Bird"), but this picture has the smoothly melancholic tones of Coleman Hawkins at his greatest.

100

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A spare, exquisitely realized masterpiece about faith, redemption and boxing that beautifully illustrates his longtime philosophy that "less is more."

100

USA Today Mike Clark

As good as "Unforgiven." Or, to put it another way, as good as any movie Eastwood has ever directed.

100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

A remarkably appealing success story full of heart and humor and poignancy, with Swank as winning as she’s ever been.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A masterpiece, pure and simple, deep and true...The best film of the year.

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

It's an ideal match, and Eastwood deserves accolades as both director and star of this powerfully made picture.

100

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Haggis's dialogue is worthy of Hemingway, and the three leads border on perfection.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Ages well in memory because it gradually seems to mean more. Its meaning can't be summed up in a sentence, but it has to do with a view of life as inexpressibly sad and yet always right.

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's an emotionally gripping, daringly genre-twisting, consummately crafted piece of filmmaking.

100

Boston Globe Ty Burr

More than "Unforgiven," more than "Mystic River," it is Clint Eastwood's autumnal masterpiece.

100

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

One of the many pleasures of this beautifully composed, measured movie is how it reminds you of the power of pure storytelling -- an art that's too often overlooked in contemporary films in the rush for sensation and excitement.

100

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

This heartbreaking film, with its rich performances and simple eloquence, lays claim to greatness.

100

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

Unlike other filmmakers in the autumn or winter of their careers, Eastwood doesn't seem content to rest on his laurels and give his audiences the tried and the true. For that reason, among many others, he and Million Dollar Baby are true champions.

100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Reveals the drama and degredation so powerfully that it ranks among the all-time heavyweights of sports movies.

100

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A truly powerful, masterful work.

100

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

Eastwood tells the story at a pace well under the Hollywood speed limit, tosses in details so beguiling they seem about to sprout into motion pictures of their own and bathes his subjects in shadows as lovely as those in any Rembrandt.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A movie of tough excitement and surprise, even grace.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

So wonderfully antiquated, so blissfully free of postmodern cleverness.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The heart of Million Dollar Baby lies in the core relationships among Frankie, Maggie and Scrap, friendships so pure, so genuine, so authentic that it takes actors of Eastwood's, Swank's and Freeman's caliber to sell them in this otherwise cynical world.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

Baby may not be quite as compelling as Mystic River or Unforgiven, but there's something so stirring, and disquieting, too, in his quest that we cannot help but pay close attention to him. In the middle of his long career's third act, he's still searching for the secrets in things with striking resolve. You certainly can't ask more than that of any 75-year-old ex-gunslinger.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Million Dollar Baby is a knockout. It is Clint Eastwood's baby in every respect — a movie that approaches the level of great boxing films, like "Raging Bull," by using sport as a metaphor for human nature.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It is a rich and challenging motion picture that both affirms life and emphasizes its fragility. Eastwood touches our hearts and energizes our minds without resorting to overt manipulation.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The knockout punch comes from Eastwood. His stripped-down performance -- as powerful as anything he's ever done -- has a rugged, haunting beauty. The same goes for the movie.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Though conventional in many respects, it feels like no other boxing film ever made, due largely to Eastwood's unmistakable presence on both sides of the camera.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

All the same, Eastwood's point of view has been seasoned enough to locate poignancy and respect for his protagonists where you least expect -- saying it's an old man's movie is a serious compliment.

Empire Colin Kennedy

To steal from Ali, this one floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

With his trademark spare, unfussy direction and jumping into the story approach, Eastwood subtly establishes the themes of faith, loss and love and then he raises the drama to a different level.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

It is thoughtful, unfashionable, measured, mostly honest, sometimes clumsy or remote, often exciting, occasionally moving and eventually surprising. It's correct.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Eastwood's slow-building story of loss and deliverance is a fine, understated piece of storytelling that earns every emotional body blow it lands.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

If we can watch this picture at all, it is because this universally admired person (Eastwood) is in it.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

In a boxing soap-opera way, Eastwood is trying to do for himself as a performer what Sergio Leone did for him in a spaghetti-western way: douse his rough-hewn banality with reflected emotional coloration.

Slate David Edelstein

It's impressive, in the sense that a sucker-punch impresses itself on your skull.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

A compendium of every cliché from every bad boxing melodrama ever made, Million Dollar Baby tries to transcend its cornball overfamiliarity with the qualities that have long characterized Eastwood's direction -- it's solemn, inflated and dull.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 374 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Shayne R. gave it a9:
Any movie that can achieve such depth of character deserves greater respect than this movie seems to be getting. There are three major characters all of which are amazingly realistic!

[Anonymous] gave it a0:
If there were a prize awarded for the largest collection of whopping fat cliches in a movie, this maudlin mess would win hands down over any movie in recent memory. It would also break the needle off the sentimentalometer. It's all served up with the straightest of faces, a classic recipe for unintentional comedy. Yes, that's right, when maggie somehow manages to suffer a broken neck at the the hands of a malicious stool, i laughed. Whilst all around me, the sound of sniffling noses signalled breaking hearts by the score. perhaps someday when the impenetrable eastwood mystique finally begins to dissipate, people will awaken as if from a dream and say, “wow, i can't believe i ever thought this was anything but steaming poop.”

Astrid F gave it a2:
Sorry, this is totally unbelievable. What a sentimental mess from beginning to end. I am trying to write something nice about this, but Mr Eastwood, I love you and therefore I forgive you for this.

Nick A. gave it a9:
Two words can best sum up this movie, brilliant and depressing! Hilary Swank gives a superb performance as a girl trying to make something of herself and leaving her past behind. Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman give great performances aswell. This was a knock-out but be warned I've seen many a sad film and this IMO was almost too sad and left me almost reaching for the Samaritans!

Carly G. gave it a4:
Really not as good as it is described. Only in the mainstream Oscar industry it is. Compared to a independant film about euthenasia, million dollar baby is nothing.

Matt gave it a10:
It is really disappointing that metacritic accepts critical reviews from places like salon.com and Slate. They are obviously no more knowledgable about film than Joe Schmoe at your local Dunkin Donuts. Million Dollar Baby is unquestionably one of the two or three best films of the past ten years. It upsets me that its overall ranking is sullied by these two completely hack "news" organizations.

Riren gave it a7:
Swank, Eastwood and Freeman make this a must-see movie. Million Dollar Baby has a plethora of loose plot threads and a tendency to forget plot elements and randomly bring them up again 30 or 60 minutes later, but mirky directing can't detract from three of the best performances in recent film history. The trio portray deep, sympathetic characters with three of the earthiest relationships, each a delight to follow until the disappointing ending. The story doesn't build to a climax or a final act; the final act falls onto the film, and is so out of place that it takes a half an hour to get its barings again. It's a sensationalist and provocative ending, melancholy and hard to fight morally, but it just isn't earned by where the film goes in its first 85 minutes - and the movie notices this, summoning more mood lighting and mood music than is noticeable in the rest of the picture. Also be warned that Million Dollar Baby is not a boxing movie. It's not a sports movie. It's a human drama that happens to take place in a gym a lot of the time. The fights are handled terribly, from the early montage of unbelievable knockouts to the final match that unfolds more like a bad pro wrestling match than something from televised boxing. Still I implore you, see this movie for these three performances. It will be a long time before we get three more like them, especially in the same picture.

Million Dollar Baby Warner Bros.

Million Dollar Baby
Warner Bros.