Does the movie world need another boxing movie?

The short answer is no but then again "Million Dollar Baby," as directed by Clint Eastwood, is only using the hard-hitting world of boxing as a backdrop to tell a poignant drama about the importance of forging extended families when those related by blood prove to be a major disappointment.

This somber and ultimately unsettling motion picture is Eastwood’s equally grim follow-up film to "Mystic River," which earned 2003 Oscar gold for actors Sean Penn and Tim Robbins and four other nominations including best picture and director.

The new film, which stars Oscar winners Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, is also likely to attract Academy consideration. It tells the deceptively uplifting story of Maggie Fitzgerald, a 31-year-old unknown female fighter and her relationship with a crusty pair of past-their-prime boxing veterans, who help make her a contender for the championship bout.

What on the surface may look like "Rocky" on estrogen veers off into unexpected situations that take the film and audiences out of the ring and through the emotional wringer before the final credits roll. Fortunately, for viewers, the film manages to overcome carefully orchestrated sentimentality and plot contrivances with rock solid performances.

Eastwood earned some of the biggest box office returns playing bare-knuckle brawler Philo Beddoe in the action comedies "Every Which Way But Loose" and "Any Which Way You Can." In his latest film he gets very serious as Frankie Dunn, a gruff Irish Catholic boxing trainer, manager and former cut man who now runs a run-down gym in Los Angeles.

Dunn had an unexplained falling out with his only daughter some twenty years before. And he isn’t at all pleased at the prospect of teaching the fine art of pugilism to any woman, particularly an untrained amateur like Maggie who thinks she has what it takes to be a champion. "Girlie, tough ain’t enough," declares Dunn in his tired, raspy voice as he assesses the potential of this highly motivated trailer trash waitress who wants to better herself in the ring.

But there wouldn’t but much of a movie if Eastwood’s character didn’t come around eventually and decide to play Burgess Meredith to Swank’s feisty filly from the Ozarks.

The film is narrated by Morgan Freeman, who brings a potent authority to the role of Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupris. This half-blind former boxer now sweeps up and bunks down in the Hit Pit gym owned by Dunn, and dispenses pearls of wisdom on cue.

Eastwood and Freeman, who previously worked together on "Unforgiven," come across on screen as an old married couple, secretly very fond of each other. They form an ersatz "parental" unit deeply involved in the care and raising of a boxing sensation. And Maggie certainly finds a father figure in Mr. Dunn.

The central relationships found in "Million Dollar Baby" can be found in "Rope Burn: Stories From the Corner," a critically acclaimed short story collection written by F. X. Toole. Toole is the pen name of veteran fight manager and cut man Jerry Boyd, who, like Eastwood was born in 1930. Boyd spent four decades struggling to get his boxing fiction published before it arrived in bookstores in 2000. He died in 2002 before finishing his first novel.

Screenwriter Paul Haggis clearly respects the source material and uses much of the original dialog. Haggis carefully culls other characters and situations from several other short stories found in "Rope Burn," including the character "Scrap Iron" who was not part of the original "Million $$$$$ Baby."

Much has been made of Swank’s intensive physical training for the role. However, it should be pointed out that this 1999 Oscar-winner for the gender-bending drama "Boys Don’t Cry" has a history of packing a punch. After all she made her movie debut learning to fight from Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi as ‘The Next Karate Kid" in 1994.

While "Million Dollar Baby" may be fueled on screen by a full card of boxing clichés it successfully counter-punches with a smart combination of dramatic performances by all three leads.