Million Dollar Baby

Just saw Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby." What an engaging piece of work; each frame is honest and simple, no extra flourishes. Just three characters who seem to really exist. The representation of the Hillary Swank character's family troubled me a bit though. In a film that mostly (and brilliantly) avoids easy answers and simple solutions, I was struck by how stereotypical was the portrayal of a "hillbilly" family. Lazy, shiftless, fat (Swank says at one point that in her family trouble comes by the pound), welfare cheats who deserve their lot. Caricatures. The only mis-step in an otherwise good film.