Cinderella Man is a prince of a film.
***image2***Underdog stories are, by nature, cheesy and more than a little trying. Walking the delicate line between endearing and sentimentality is territory few can navigate successfully without coming out worse for the wear. Director Ron Howard has returned unscathed from those dangerous waters with the wonderful Cinderella Man .
Teaming up again with A Beautiful Mind 's Russell Crowe, Howard tells the true story of James J Braddock, a Depression-era boxer who rose to greatness during a fairytale run at the championship title after spending years in obscurity. We meet Braddock as a successful fighter, happily married man and loving father in 1928. ***image1***When the Depression hits, Braddock's career grinds to a halt and he's forced to take a job on the docks of Bergen, New Jersey to supplement his dwindling boxing income. After fighting with an injured hand, Jim is ousted from boxing and is forced to go on government assistance to feed his family.
Howard takes us to the depths of the Depression and the film suffers from it, meandering through Braddock's bad luck with a sluggish pace that is difficult to sit through. But Crowe captures this man who can't catch a break so well you almost want to throw change at the screen just to get him to go away. Just as all appears stuck in misery mode, the fairytale begins to glimmer, and events take an upswing for Braddock. He begins fighting again with the help of his corner man Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti) and starts the journey that will earn him the nickname "Cinderella Man."
The film begins to lift itself out of the gutter just like it's hero. The effect is staggering, quietly hooking the audience into Braddock's amazing story. Howard makes Braddock a true hero without resorting to cheap tricks or ham-fisted speeches about the inner strength of a man. Instead, his capable filmmaking shows, rather than tells, the tale through the brutality of the boxing matches and Braddock's perseverance despite the odds.
Braddock's status as an inspirational figure is played down. His relationship with his wife Mae (Renee Zellweger) and his children are explored deeper than the rabid media attention that surrounded Braddock. The hero-making takes place mostly off-screen, revealed through comments by extras and newspaper headlines.
Giamatti, fresh off an Oscar nomination for his performance in Sideways , was born to play the part of a corner man, handling ringside intensity and locker room sensitivity with equal skill. Giamatti's great performance is one of many. Crowe transforms Braddock from washed up to champion with a gentle, subdued performance and Craig Bierko ( Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas ) is menacing as boxer Max Baer.
Cinderella Man
is an underdog tale worth telling; a story that can't help but be uplifting yet thankfully doesn't induce much eye rolling. Even the score remains subdued rather than saccharine, a perfectly paced accompaniment to a quiet story about a quiet man who took his second chance and ran with it.
