Decent Flick, Unfortunate Title

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2005)

Every year there are a handful of films released which seem destined for great things. This is no accident. Some movies seem to exist more for the Oscar potential of their stories than the stories themselves. Cinderella Man is 2005's first example of this familiar trend. It's the uplifting tale of one underdog boxer's triumph over adversity. Rocky spun a similar yarn nearly 30 years ago and took home the highly coveted Best Picture award. The same can be said for last year's outstanding Million Dollar Baby. Cinderella Man is not quite as good as those two films, but it does possess one unique benefit: it's a true story.
Anyone who saw 2003's Seabiscuit has pretty much seen Cinderella Man. Simply replace the horse and its rider with Russell Crowe's rugged, determined boxer, James Braddock. Spurred on by the need to save his family from the terrors of the Great Depression, Braddock took his one last chance at pugilistic greatness and ran with it. Crowe does a typically admirable job of filling Braddock's gloves. Director Ron Howard essentially repeats his increasingly obvious formula: take a made-for-TV story and give it the high gloss treatment. It worked perfectly for his A Beautiful Mind, which undeservedly took home the top Oscar several years ago. Rounding out the cast are the delightful Paul Giamatti and one of Hollywood's most overrated enigmas, Renee Zellweger. This entertaining movie has a lot of heart, but falls just short of a knockout.
Rating: B+