Movie Talk

Couple weeks back, I tried to wind down at the end of a long day by watching “The Machinist.” Made a similar mistake Thursday night, “relaxing” to “Million Dollar Baby.”

Missed it on the big screen, but read just enough about it to avoid reading any spoilers. Still, I went in thinking “Baby” was a boxing movie. Yeah, and “The Bridge on the River Kwai” is all about civil engineering in Thailand. Melissa didn’t want to see it, so she went upstairs to the little TV, while I took over the big HD screen downstairs.

I opened a Coke. Popped some popcorn. Got ready for a good time. Had one, too. 40 minutes in, I was so entertained that I just had to pause the movie and run upstairs to tell Melissa something.

“Honey, remember how after we watched ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,’ I decided that at least one out of every five movies should be set in Savannah?”

“Yes…”

“Well, now I think that one out of five should star Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman together. Oh, and there should be some overlap with the Savannah Rule.”

Needless to say, at least once each movie night my wife looks at me funny.

Then again, am I really crazy, just because I’d like to see an Eastwood/Freeman movie set in Savannah? What’d be even better is if they were the oldest members of Michael Corleone’s Georgia crew. And had lightsabers.

If you’ve seen “Baby” already, you know what happens about 2/3rds the way through. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil it for you. But I do know that the two most powerful movies I’ve seen in the last year (“Million Dollar Baby” and “Mystic River”) were both directed by Eastwood. The man is good.

Anyway, I wasn’t shocked by the Big Shocking Scene. Eastwood planted his clues in exactly the right places, and always in the context of the characters. What happens from there follows naturally, perfectly, dramatically, tragically. If “Baby” isn’t the perfect feel-good sports movie, it’s almost certainly the best feel-something sports movie.

Topping it off was Freeman’s voiceover. Oftentimes, I find voiceovers distracting. Unless you’re one of those people God talks to out loud all the time, you just don’t hear voiceovers in real life – so I find they can remind me I’m just watching a flick. But Freeman’s easy rumble sounds right anywhere. If your life could have a narrator, you’d probably choose Morgan if you could afford him.

The one surprise I didn’t see coming was the nature of Freeman’s voiceover. That little tidbit isn’t revealed until the last line of the movie, and makes for the perfect capper.

Anything else of interest going on in the world? Hell if I know. I’ll scan some headlines, sip a bit at my post-movie cocktail, and see if I can’t find something.