He's a natural talent, with new motivation!

Rating: 10/10 (4 June 2005)

It's about hope, surviving despair with integrity, and a "natural talent" exercising his god given talent for boxing.
The acting is terrific by Crowe, Zellweger and Giamatti as expected.... But make room for Craig Bierko (Max Baer) and Paddy Considine (Braddock's pal: Mike Wilson), a Stephen Baldwin lookalike, who are spectacular in their supporting roles.
Wrapped in the Great Depression, the riches to rags story held my rapt attention for each of its 150 min run time. Ron Howard's direction and the editing perfectly delivers the story of J J Braddock and family without losing me once. In today's vernacular, it's all good.
Squeamish on boxing's impact on the human body? Look away. The film is too good to miss based on that alone.
This film is in "The Natural" (R Redford) class, with enough great one-liners that'll have devotees quoting them as they liberally do from the Godfather franchise. It's a magnificent rendering of Rocky, with the bonus of being true to boot. I loved it. 10 out of 10.