"Million Dollar Baby" is essentially a study of three characters and their relationship to boxing. We see Frankie Dunn, (acted by Clint Eastwood) who is an spiritual, eldery trainer for boxers and owns a gym. He spends his time and energy training a promising boxer, who eventually leaves him in search of better boxing opportunities with another manager. This agonizes Frankie, because we see that he has allowed his own fears to hinder the careers of his boxers. This keeps compounding the pain of his estrangled daughter with whom he has not had any contact for many years. We see him writing letters to his daughter, only to get them back unopened.

Scrap (played by Morgan Freeman) is a retired boxer who currently works (and lives) in Frankie's gym. He was a promising fighter, whose stubbornness cost him his career and his eye. He hangs around in the gym offering wisdom to these who will take it. He also is a confidant for Frankie, nagging him about giving boxers chances and about the actions that Frankie refuses to do, which costs him.

One day, we see Maggie starting to train as a boxer at the gym. She is nothing but a poor waitress who comes from a white trash family. Frankie doesn't like her presence, and tries to discourage her from training as a boxer, since she is already old (31 years old). We see that these words does nothing to her determination on becoming a boxer, and she continues training on her own. Scrap starts helping her out a bit, and she is on the path of becoming a good boxer. We cannot help but to feel sorry for her, as we see her taking food left by her customers to bring home and eat. She has saved all of her money to invest in her boxing training.

Finally, after being rejected by the boxer, Frankie agrees to train Maggie to become a boxer. They start to grow upon each other, and Maggie believes in nobody else but Frankie. Maggie is also equally as stubborn as Frankie, refusing to heed advices from her 'boss' and training however and whenever she likes. Before long, Maggie starts fighting in lightweight matches with other women, but she lacks the control to last through several rounds, knocking her opponents out in the first rounds. Frankie begins putting her in a higher weight category, and several fights has given Maggie some opportunity to grow as a boxer.

Afraid that Maggie would leave him for another trainer, he finally agrees to allow Maggie on a million dollar fight in Vegas with a questionable East German fighter. This becomes the turning point in Frankie and Maggie's lives, and we see the struggle they go through after the big fight. It is a very moving story, and how a woman has done all she can to own up to her dream, and being content with her life at this point. We see Maggie's family trying to be exploitive of her fortune, and how Frankie tries to cope with the situation after the fight, owning up to his responsibility to his "daughter" (Maggie) after what he could not have done for his real daughter. It is really a brilliant film, and I give it four stars.