Hoary boxing-movie clichés abound!

Rating: 5/10 (21 January 2006)

Heavyweight champ James J. Braddock looks back on his humble beginnings: in the Depression Era as a washed-up boxer with a broken hand and a revoked license, he struggles to take care of his wife and three kids before making a miraculous comeback. Director Ron Howard builds every scene as something extraordinary, while his throwaway bits (such as a married couple fighting in front of a church, or a man walking out on his wife) are hammered home with little subtlety. Howard constructs the film disappointingly, with a flashback segue intervening about seven minutes in, and with principal actors who look pained, perplexed or disinterested. Renée Zellweger, playing Braddock's fiercely devoted wife Mae (who sews under a single lamp while her kids always seem to be in bed), is stuck with lines like, "When you get hit, I feel it, too". This is the passive, loving wifey movie fans have seen since the beginning of time, and Zellweger does absolutely nothing original with the part; Russell Crowe has some strong scenes as Braddock, but our introduction to him, smugly collecting his money after a fight, is curiously sour. He and Zellweger have no screen chemistry whatsoever, and their dialects and acting styles clash. The smaller roles are filled with scenery-chewing overachievers, and Howard is shameless in allowing them to hold nothing back (everything is done 'colorfully', for effect, and the film plays like a ham sandwich). This true story comes hilariously "pre-approved" with a quote from Damon Runyan, with period detail that is careful but disappointing. The whole enterprise suffers from boxing fatigue. ** from ****