Its a good movie, but its a bit overrated

Rating: 7/10 (27 July 2005)

Good performances by all (I particularly liked Paul Giamatti). Howard didn't not try to strangle the movie with smurfy moments with the kids. The boxing matches got the blood up. But... eh. No great lesson to learn about life (other than to not give up, to show tenacity in the face of adversity, blah, blah blah). Nothing to ponder upon. I think the genius of Howard is that with this incredibly formulaic story, he managed not to overly bog it down with schmaltz, or loose tension throughout the movie. But it is a real formulaic story.
It gets a plus for not avoiding to show uglier aspects of the Depression. It gets a minus for lying about Max Baer in order to make him look more like a villain.
Maybe its me. Maybe I need more existential angst in a movie. Maybe these glowing comment reviews with almost no negative ones irk me. I never did like Rocky. But Million Dollar Baby was a much better boxing movie. Its a disgrace that Cinderella Man got killed in the box office by junk like Revenge of the Sith, or the Longest Yard, but this movie does not belong in the top 250 list.