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Rating: 8/10 (14 February 2006)

While some may say that this film is more depressing, than anything else, I found it uplifting. It's the struggle of one poor family in the 1930's during the Great Depression, trying to find hope through one man's dreams.
Based on true events, the story of James (Crowe), circles around his family; his wife and three small children, during tough times in American economy. His dream is to be able to box, and while having broken his hand earlier on in the story, and find scarce work, it seems as though his hope for his family's lives and his own, is barely worth holding on to. But, through the help of a friend, and a lot of belief in himself, tragedy turns into fairy tale, and the rest is the making of an amazing film and true story.
Renee Zellwiger was great as usual, and Paul Giamanti was terrific as well, as he always is in character-driven roles such as these. And, although I'm not a Russel Crowe fan, I was very impressed with his work in this film. He was very real, and his accent was amazing for an Australian.
During the whole movie, it sort of reminded me in the tiniest way of 'Far and Away' the early 1990's movie with Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, and it came as no surprise why, when the credits ran at the end of this picture, that it had been a Ron Howard film, who also did 'Away'. It had the same feel and appearance and sort of the same theme (boxing) as the other film had.
I found the whole movie to be quite enjoyable and well told. I recommend it to anyone over fourteen, for the strong violence.