Not too bad - but not overwhelmed

Rating: 7/10 (5 June 2005)

There be spoilers here.
Well, there were some fine performances in this movie. Russell Crowe , Paul Giamatti and Bruce McGill were excellent. Renee wasn't annoying, which is a good thing in her case.
Unfortunately, the final product is less than it's parts.
First, we're supposed to feel sorry for the poverty-stricken Braddock's without being shown any of the losses they suffered at the onset of the Great Depression. You spend nearly 15 minutes wondering what the hell happened to them. One minute they're very well-off, one camera-pan over and they're penniless. Later in the movie, you find out with the help of two brief explanations, but by then those have no effect. Yes, millions lost virtually everything in the years after the crash of '29, but having been shown what happened to them would've had a profound impact on the viewer and would've made all the scenes that were supposed to make you weep and feel sorry for them actually work. The "sudden poverty" just didn't work for me whatsoever.
Next major flaw was the whole portrayal of Max Baer. You've probably heard all the bemoaning about it already. Max Baer was a bit of a showboat, somewhat a clown and living it up. Two of his opponents died from injuries sustained during matches with Max, one instantly right in the ring. He was profoundly crushed. We can only speculate how close he was to giving it all up. He put the children of the one fighter through college. But the filmmakers figured they needed a villain, so Max is portrayed as a narcissist, cocky and nearly proud of the deaths he caused. Definitely the fatal flaw in this movie for me. They could've easily shown Max as being just like Braddock, a boxer who only knows boxing and therefore continues doing so regardless of how life is outside of the ring. Yes, it's Braddock's story, but showing Max as human was definitely possible.
Not to worry tho, the rest of the film is very well done. The pacing isn't too bad, the overall look of the film was great. But the two points above made it really hard for me to really like this movie.
Fine performances by the principles, even the kids were good...yet I walked away feeling kinda "ho-hum" about the whole thing.
I rate it 7/10.