Those expecting a female Rocky are sure going to be disappointed. Sure there are some moments of boxing (though almost bordering on ridiculous in the end). There are also some very disturbing visuals of the damage boxing can do to one’s face – a re-setting of a broken nose being one of the more icky moments in the film.

Briefly, Clint Eastwood is Frankie Dunn, the owner of a boxing gym who loses his star boxer. Hilary Swank plays Maggie Fitzgerald, a girl who knows what she is (trash) and what she wants in life to make a better person out of herself (a world champion boxer) and nothing will stop her including Eastwood’s initial refusal to train her as he doesn’t train girls. These two are able supported by Morgan Freeman’s Scrap, a former boxer now caretaker of the gym and narrator of the movie. Of course, Eastwood ends up taking Swank on and the story is off.

There are so many things going on in the movie – there is love, there is forgiveness, there is persistence, there is ambition, there is knowing what you want in life, there is betrayal, there is heart-break and there is morality – that you couldn’t simply call it a boxing movie and be done with it. Viewers shouldn’t expect a Hollywood ending on this one but do expect yet another Oscar to be delivered to The Next Karate Kid .. Hilary has certainly come a long way from that performance.