Dir. Ron Howard, US, 2005, 144 mins
Cast: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti, Craig Bierko, Paddy Considine
Review by Juliea Stewart
Cinderella Man is the rags-to-riches tale of real-life depression-era boxer, James Braddock, portrayed deeply-and-meaningfully by Russell Crowe.
Braddock has a shot at the big-time, but a broken right-hand and the pressures of clinging onto some semblance of a family life during the Great Depression have him begging for work down the docks and cap-in-hand at the Gentleman’s Club. This is a story of survival through struggle and the message, if there is one, is about winning through with (ultimately) brute force.
Braddock is supported by the love of his long-suffering wife – a strong, understated performance from Zellweger.
Braddock also relies on the unconditional faith of his long time best-friend and manager, a convincing dramatic turn from Giamatti. But pride keeps Braddock from revealing the true nature of his hard-times . driving him to the public hand-out and then back again to repay his debt . the dole as a loan . the back-bone of the man.
It seems this story is a long-standing project of Crowe’s – a vehicle he has nurtured along with director Ron Howard and writer Cliff Hollingsworth, with help from Akiva Goldsmith – all but Cliff form the Oscar-winning crowd behind A Beautiful Mind , the story of John Nash’s search for an original thought.
Unfortunately Cinderella Man seeks no such original thought and is as predictable as bread-and-butter pudding. With all the right ingredients, this most basic of deserts can become a satisfying feast but this particular concoction has insufficient ginger, cinnamon, orange-rind and raisins – rich, surprising moments interspersed between the solid, predictable mass of descriptive scenes.
We go to see this because we know what we’re getting, we just want to see how it’s going to unfold, how it’s been ‘done’ this time around.
We know we’re going to be ‘shown’ the Great Depression . everyone desperate for work and food, hanging onto their jobs and families . basically depressed . and we know we’re going to see The Fight-Scenes . but how will they match up to those we’ve already seen in Raging Bull , Ali , even Million Dollar Baby ? We’re a boxing-saavy audience now. Cinderella Man looks like a contender . but doesn’t quite deliver. Neither a knock-out technically, nor a full-blown tear-jerker narrartively, it’s just a bit stolid.
The film seems incomplete and some story-line possibilities missed . for example – Braddock’s intelligence is glossed over (he had had investments on the Stock-Exchange), particularly in the scene where motion-film is introduced and Braddock is shown ‘news-reel’ footage of the impossibly ‘evil’ fighter he faces (a man who has already killed two men in the ring) . Braddock insisting on watching the footage and we get a sense of a fighter learning to fight better through watching recorded performance. This theme is left unexplored.
Braddock’s time on the docks has also given him a strengthened left. An area of weakness previously, he can now use this earned strength to his advantage against his opponent, as they slug it out goreishly for fifteen rounds. We all know Braddock is going to win . and it isn’t edge-of-the-seat when he does. It’s just . bread’n'butter stuff.
