Anticipation - MILLION DOLLAR BABY

Tomorrow night, I'm going to see Clint Eastwood's latest, MILLION DOLLAR BABY. I hear there's a dark ending. Several of you have commented on my having liked the doom-laden MYSTIC RIVER and ROAD TO PERDITION. Artistic concerns aside, there's no question that I am drawn to fatalistic works, whether it be the two afore-mention Jacobean tragedies or to film noir, or to doom related romances. I'm an enormous fan of the underseen Nicholas Ray film IN A LONELY PLACE, with Humphrey Bogart and the great Gloria Graham. I also like the original WUTHERING HEIGHTS. In the same vein, I remain a champion of the un-Westernized IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE as the best film of the decade. And, Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN is my favorite American film of the 90's. You, see, I'm such a cheerful guy. After all, like Woody Allen, I grew up on Ingmar Bergman. So, I do anticipate MILLION DOLLAR BABY, for, in the crap of American cinema since l980, in Eastwood's works from PLAY MISTY FOR ME to MYSTIC RIVER, I've found a commeriial director with whom I've been able to connect in the darkness.