Cinderella Man - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

'Cinderella Man' makes all the right moves

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Rocky" meets "Ironweed" in Ron Howard's superb "Cinderella Man," a knockout boxing movie that reunites the director with his "A Beautiful Mind" star, Russell Crowe.

"Cinderella Man" is the name Broadway's unofficial poet laureate, Damon Runyon, bestowed on fighter Jim Braddock (Crowe) who, like a Seabiscuit in boxing trunks, became an underdog hero for a nation feeling pretty underdog-ish itself in the Depression '30s.

Universal Studios

'Cinderella Man'

A-

The verdict: In this splendid Cinderella story, a requiem for a heavyweight becomes the redemption of a heavyweight.

Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Connor Price, Paul Giamatti, Craig Bierko
Run time: 144 minutes
Release date: June 3, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for intense boxing violence and some language.
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The movie opens in 1928 with Braddock and his faithful corner man, Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti), at the top of the world. At the top of their game, too. Known variously as the Pride of New Jersey and the Hope of the Irish, Braddock typically pulled down around $850 a bout — back when $850 meant something like $85,000.

Via a slow slide around their bedroom, Howard gives us a shorthand glimpse of the good life the pugilist shared with his wife, Mae (Renee Zellweger). It's full of nice things — crystal glasses, a silver hairbrush, jewelry. There's even rose-colored wallpaper.

Cut to four years later. The wallpaper's gone, along with anything else rosy. In its stead is the brother-can-you-spare-a-dime misery of a bleak one-room cold-water flat Jim and Mae share with their three kids. His career has gone the way of the country (down), and Braddock can barely land a fight. When he finally gets one, he blows it so badly his license is revoked.

He rejoins the clamoring throng at the docks, desperate for a day's work, and the quietly despondent line at the public dole, who are desperate, period.

Then, in a one-in-a-million miracle, he gets a one-shot second chance, which leads to a heavyweight championship bout with the feared Max Baer (Craig Bierko), who's already killed two men in the ring.

Baer is fighting for glory, Braddock for something more important — to put milk on the table.

"Cinderella Man" is a Cinderella story and, as such, the movie may not be dark enough or complex enough for some. Further, anyone who still has a problem with an Oscar-winning Opie may find it all too easy to dismiss him as a lightweight.

However, Howard doesn't skimp on the blood and sweat inside the ring or the sweat and tears outside it. This isn't the Disney World Depression. We see the hardscrabble times of a Hooverville in Central Park, the empty plates of the Braddock clan and, in one magnificent moment, the rickety card table and three mournful chairs behind an apartment's elegant facade.

The fights lack the artsy slo-mo of "Raging Bull," but they're strongly staged as well as credible. And when a fat-cat promoter shows Braddock footage of Baer's pair of deadly bouts, it's sickening.

The cast makes all the right moves, from Paddy Considine as a broke former stockbroker to Bierko as the ferociously flamboyant champ, to Giamatti, who as the committed and quick-witted right-hand man may finally get an overdue Oscar nomination. Zellweger does everything there is to be done with the Wife Role, and it's a measure of the respect she has for the company she keeps that she would want to do the part.

Crowe is the movie's tarnished golden boy, its ace-in-the-hole left hook. As he's done in one movie after the other — "The Insider," "Gladiator," "Master and Commander" — he cloaks himself in an entirely different physicality. His Braddock is a fit-as-a-fiddle pugilist, but for the 1930s, not 2005, with a barrel chest and upper arms like slabs of beef. Compared to today's sleeker versions, he looks blocky, almost spongy.

The actor carries in him flashes of Richard Burton, Albert Finney, even Laurence Olivier. At the same time, he's a pure original, someone we've never seen before. To watch him as he makes his mark isn't just exciting, it's a privilege.

Ironically, "Cinderella Man's" Oscar prospects may hinge less on any upcoming 2005 movies than it does on a 2004 film. Namely, last year's Oscar darling, "Million Dollar Baby." It's hard to guess how much of the sweet science Academy members can take, but let's worry about that next February.