Review: Cinderella Man


Persuasive 2005 Ron Howard (“Parenthood”, “Apollo 13”, “A Beautiful Mind”) biopic of working class boxer Jim J. Braddock (Russell Crowe), a genuinely decent man who fought to feed his family during the Depression, despite injuries and a has-been tag. A perfectly cast Paul Giamatti plays Braddock’s manager, and Renee Zellweger is his supportive but concerned wife. Bruce McGill has a fine supporting role as Jimmy Johnston, the fight promoter who doesn’t see any crowd-pulling potential in Braddock. Craig Bierko turns up as a demonised version of Max Baer, the supposedly brutal heavyweight champion.

 

Crowe is absolutely astonishing here, and the story so winning (it’s like “Rocky” meets “The Grapes of Wrath”, with Braddock becoming a hero for the downtrodden just like Tom Joad), that one can overlook its flaws. Aside from the unfair treatment of the Baer character (I’ve heard on good authority that he wasn’t a monster at all), and overlength, one also has to contend with a seriously mopey, scrunchy-faced performance by Zellweger, who is simply depressing (overdoing the timid wife thing, Talia Shire needn’t worry, her mantle ain’t about to be stolen) when not irritating. How she won an Oscar for her caricatured Calamity Jane meets Yosemite Sam performance in “Cold Mountain” is beyond me, and she’s only marginally better here.

 

A solid film. The scene where Braddock has to beg his former employer and co for money is truly heartbreaking stuff, and Crowe plays it remarkably well for someone not exactly known for being humble. Scripted by Cliff Hollingsworth and the critically reviled Akiva Goldsman (“The Client”, “Batman Forever”, “A Beautiful Mind”), I’m surprised this rah-rah story wasn’t tackled earlier, it’s perfect material for a movie.

 

Rating: B-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more