![]() ![]() The screenplay for "Cinderella Man," by Cliff Hollingsworth and Akiva Goldsman, has its own problems with standard-issue plot formulas and hackneyed dialogue. While that movie also had talented stars (Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper) and a fact-based story, it was written and directed with such a heavy hand that only its gloppy sentimentality reached the finish line. If this story synopsis sounds vaguely familiar, it's because "Seabiscuit" covered similar terrain two years ago, showing how a horse with heart cheered Depression-era fans by triumphing over his underdog status. When he eventually made it back to the ring, it was far from certain that he'd ever land a bout with the heavyweight champ - much less that he'd prevail over Baer, portrayed in the film as a single-minded punching machine with a mean streak as broad as his beefy shoulders. Braddock's boxing career, the movie makes it plain that the Depression hit him hard, complete with spells of unemployment, real worry over feeding and sheltering his family, and hand injuries (aggravated by hard labor as a longshoreman) that forced him away from prizefighting and the money he might have made there. He should have won, too - as he did for "Gladiator" a year earlier - since his evocation of hero John Nash at different stages of a long, difficult life was nothing short of uncanny.Ĭrowe plays the title character of "Cinderella Man," the real-life prizefighter Jim Braddock, whose 1935 match with champion Max Baer helped make the travails of the Depression seem a little more bearable for ordinary folks who regarded him as one of their own.īesides chronicling Mr. Crowe one of his three Oscar nominations. The actor also worked with Howard in the 2001 drama "A Beautiful Mind," an imperfect picture that earned Mr. ![]() Much of that superb acting is done by Russell Crowe, one of the most gifted performers in movies today. And it's hard to imagine a movie more cemented in the mainstream than "Cinderella Man," a proudly old-fashioned picture so deftly crafted and superbly acted that you hardly notice how many clichés it contains until you're heading for the exit at the end. Again the payoffs vary, from the triteness of "Backdraft" to the excitement of "Apollo 13." The other is the classical Ron Howard, following Hollywood's most conventional and traditional rules. One is the experimental Ron Howard who tries daring new approaches, with results ranging from the muddled "Edtv" to the unwatchable "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." When the opportunity to be knocked on for $150 arises, Braddock gleefully takes it and goes on to shock the world when he beats the number one contender for the championship belt.I sometimes think Ron Howard must be the name of two different directors. In accordance with the aphorisms “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger” and “hard times make strong men,” it is here - after his fatal injury and from his work in the dockyards - that Braddock eradicates the hidden weakness that had quelled his presumed ascension to the top of the boxing world a number of years earlier. She helps him partially conceal the injury by covering its cast in black shoe polish. That goodness so thoroughly flowing through Braddock is helped along by his wife, Mae, played affectionately by Renee Zellweger. Long before he sees such an outcome, however, Braddock has an injury to his powerful right hand and loses his license to box, meaning he may have to find work beyond really the only work that has hitherto been available to him and now seems near-impossible in his further lessened state. ![]() His concern now is to survive the temporary setback with his family and his dignity intact. He believes he and the country at-large will see themselves through the Great Depression. He mostly stays positive, not out of cowardice or naivety, mind you, but from something deeply buried within him that hints at a clear order of things. While many have grand ideas about how to remedy the ill that has met them, Braddock doesn’t want to riot, overthrow the government, or in any way blame others. You see, Braddock is a good man and his government has failed him. ![]()
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