Hackiva Goldsman strikes again

Rating: 5/10 (10 June 2005)

How on earth does Akiva Goldsman continue to get work as a screenwriter in Hollywood? The man's a hack, responsible for such unforgettable masterpieces as "Silent Fall" (1994), "Batman Forever" (1995), "Batman and Robin" (1997), "Lost in Space" (1998), "Practical Magic" (1998) and "I, Robot" (2004). When you watch such tripe, what can one say but Akiva Goldsman! Yes, he won an Oscar for "A Beautiful Mind" (2001), when Academy voters went completely bonkers and decided to honor claptrap over quality.
I wonder how much of what Cliff Hollingsworth wrote made it into the shooting script. Because this film has all the trademarks of yet another hackneyed job by Goldsman. He doesn't have a clue how to find grey areas in his characters. They're either good or bad. That's it. He hasn't seen a cinematic cliché he doesn't embrace. That's what's wrong with Ron Howard's film, "Cinderella Man." Apparently, boxer James J. Braddock's life was nothing but a series of clichés. That this film remains partially interesting is due to Russell Crowe's uncanny ability to disappear into a character and Paul Giamatti's sensationally terrific performance as Braddock's trainer, Joe Gould. Renée Zellweger gets a poorly written role as Braddock's long-suffering wife.
"Cinderella Man" is the ideal film for the George W. Bush administration. It's shamelessly manipulative, alters reality to suit its needs and comes with such jingoistic fervor that you feel like a pariah for not liking it. Not liking this film could be downright un-American. And, as we all know, these days, being called unpatriotic is worse than being called a pedophile.
"Cinderella Man" is the kind of film so seeped in its own sense of righteous goodness that it seems destined to be embraced by Academy voters next year. At least, that could very well result in Giamatti finally getting an Oscar nomination, something he was shamefully denied for his performances in "American Splendor" (2003) and "Sideways" (2004).
In this film, Braddock doesn't just pull himself up by his bootstraps. The guy's too poor to own boots. So he pulls himself up on borrowed bootstraps! I've no doubt the real Braddock was a decent chap who boxed to save his family from dire straits. But I doubt he was as uncomplex a person as Goldsman made him. Also, Max Baer wasn't the ogre Howard and Goldsman make him out to be. In this film, Baer (Craig Bierko) is an obnoxious, insensitive, womanizing brute who gloats about killing two men in the ring.
There've been some great boxing films throughout history, including "Body and Soul" (1947), "The Set-Up" (1949), "Fat City" (1972) and Martin Scorsese's masterpiece, "Raging Bull" (1980). "Cinderella Man" isn't one of them. Though, there were times during Howard's film when I was convinced I was watching Scorsese's movie. Not because "Cinderella Man" rekindled the brilliance, but because Howard clearly borrowed so heavily from "Raging Bull" for his boxing sequences.
Incidentally, while much of the art direction capturing the Great Depression is impressive, what happened when it came to recreating Braddock's ramshackle apartment? Quite frankly, it looked like the set of an amateur theatrical production, and a bad one at that.
"Cinderella Man" could've been a trenchant, powerful, gritty film about an honorable man's fight to remain true to himself and his family and his struggle to overcome great adversity. But every momentous occasion - and this film's riddled with them - is telegraphed so broadly and blatantly that it's difficult to be wowed by any of it. You know promises will be broken, "important" scenes of families coming apart will be shown, flashbacks to hammer home sledgehammer-like what Braddock is fighting for will pop up at the right moments. Goldsman even goes so far as to have a pre-fight meeting between Baer and Braddock where, you guessed it, one guy will be positively rotten and the other charming and humble.
Just think what a genuinely good and talented writer could have done with this story.