Frankie Dunn (CLINT EASTWOOD) has trained and managed some incredible fighters during a lifetime spent in the ring. The most important lesson he teaches his boxers is the one that rules his life: above all, always protect yourself. In the wake of a painful estrangement from his daughter, Frankie has been unwilling to let himself get close to anyone for a very long time. His only friend is Scrap (MORGAN FREEMAN), an ex-boxer who looks after Frankie's gym and knows that beneath his gruff exterior is a man who has attended Mass almost every day for the past 23 years, seeking the forgiveness that somehow continues to elude him. Then Maggie Fitzgerald (HILARY SWANK) walks into his gym. Maggie's never had much, but there is one thing she does have that very few people in this world ever do: she knows what she wants and she's willing to do whatever it takes to get it. In a life of constant struggle, Maggie's gotten herself this far on raw talent, unshakable focus and a tremendous force of will. But more than anything, what she wants is for someone to believe in her. The last thing Frankie needs is that kind of responsibility - let alone that kind of risk. He tells Maggie the blunt hard truth: she's too old and he doesn't train girls. But 'no' has little meaning when you have no other choice. Unwilling or unable to give up on her life's ambition, Maggie wears herself to the bone at the gym every day, encouraged only by Scrap. Finally won over by Maggie's sheer determination, Frankie begrudgingly agrees to take her on. In turns exasperating and inspiring each other, the two come to discover that they share a common spirit that transcends the pain and loss of their pasts, and find in each other a sense of family they lost long ago. What they don't know is that soon they will both face a battle that's going to demand more heart and courage than any they've ever known.
I don't know where your mind is, but the last line is the only one that eludes to some "battle" and I know that I would never have thought that is what their "battle"would be about. It is a boxing movie for God's sake from their presentation, who would have surmised from that little snippet that it is actually about euthanasia. The advertising is deceptive, pure and simple, the debate is really to the why it is deceptive--inept marketers or keen ones who knew the movie would be rejected if that topic were marketed as the focus?
Oh and I just gave it another look for the sake of this discussion and watched the trailer on the website. there is not one bit of indication that this young lady even gets sick, no bed scene, no scene of her frail and ill, nothing to warn anyone of what is in it. They seem to market it in that trailer as a man who has a past with a daughter he lost and kind of finds that bond again with a girl fighting her way to boxing glory, a girl who herself is kind of hopeless. Nothing at all that eludes to what will come, nothing. It is deceptive marketing. Without arguing the merits or lack of them to euthanasia, it is a deceptive movie and one has to consider that it was purposely deceptive because those that marketed it knew it would not generate the kind of viewership they would have hoped for if it had actually been marketed based on its center theme.
I didn't read any of the information you posted here before I decided to see this movie. If you really believed all the advertising you saw about movies, they are all No. #1. Best this...best that. Long ago I learned that was a bunch of B.S. That's not how I select a movie to see. It is mostly from what my friends and family that have seen a movie might say. They are mostly conservative and all are christians. All of them said it was a good movie. Every single one. That doesn't come easy with this group.
It's clear to me that you are the one pushing an agenda here, and I don't even know if you've seen the movie. Tell me again, why should I be swayed by you? Is it because you read an advertisment and then Michael Medved or Rush?
Having said that, I did read your post and I have to say I pretty much agree with the advertisement. Do you know how this movie ends? Do you know what happens to the character Clint Eastwood plays? If you do, let me know.