I expected to enjoy this more than I did.The performances are outstanding, and parts of it are very satisfying, but the writing is too on the nose; the kid’s reaction to shooting Quick Mike is the best example of the script’s tendency to linger too long on, and overexplain, conclusions we could have drawn on our own.Mystic River suffered from the same problem, sort of, and I think Eastwood as a director is attracted to this somewhat simplistic, “cinematic” sort of moral ambiguity; there’s nothing wrong with that per se, but he is historically not great at underplaying that ambiguity so that it feels less canned and didactic.I like Million Dollar Baby a great deal, but again, it’s a function of likable performances; many people didn’t like it because it was so Goofus & Gallant in its storytelling, and I can’t disagree, but again, there’s nothing wrong with that — it’s possible to do it in a compelling way.But sometimes it doesn’t work, quite….I liked the film, I wasn’t bored, it’s an entertaining two hours, but I was expecting greatness, and it didn’t deliver that for me….I do like the fact that one of the bad guys is named “Davey Bunting.”

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