A nice movie about boxing...

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2006)

Ron Howard, the chronicler of the American Dream, the man who loves the happy endings with hurrays and violins strikes back with a new biopic (after "A Beautiful Mind", based on the life-story of John Nash), with a new story of long-suffering people who eventually get a well deserved reward. Well, who's the chosen one this time? It is Jim Braddock, a second rate boxer that won the Heavy Weights title in the years of the Great Depression. That way he became kind of a symbol for all the helpless people that were having a real bad time in those days.
"Cinderella man" have such a nice setting and an awesome production, the ones only the big Hollywood studios can provide. The boxing sequences are rather realistic (this is not "Rocky", the fighters don't punch in the nose each other 200 times by round), and the recreation of sweaty and filthy boxing world is superb (it will satisfy even the more fussy). Anyway, there's not much to say about boxing, there are hundreds of movies which talk about that sport.
Russel Crowe plays Jim Braddock and he makes an awesome show of strength and charisma, he'll probably won the Oscar (that would be his second one, and his fifth nomination in 6 or 7 years). Renee Zelweeger plays the so loving and sympathetic wife of Braddock's. This woman looks like she's got rooted in Bridget Jones' character (please, no more pouting!!!), maybe with 30kg under. And last (but not least) we got Paul Giamatti, one of the actors of the moment. He plays Braddock's best friend and unselfish manager, and he plays it just brilliantly (he should win an Oscar as well).
In short: a new Ronnie Howard's hit, a good film that belongs to a genre which has been so mistreated there in Tinseltown. It is not as good as "Raging Bull" or "Fat city", but it's surely worth watching.... oh, and God bless America!
*My rate: 7.5/10