Packs a solid punch

Rating: 7/10 (16 October 2005)

I find it mildly depressing that people will pay good money to watch two beefy guys trying to knock each other down in a boxing ring, but the spectators at a boxing match obviously derive a lot of atavistic pleasure from it. Inasmuch as it sublimates their desire to punch each other I suppose boxing serves a useful social purpose. You certainly can't blame a working-class stiff from New Jersey like Jim Braddock from using his fast right fist and high tolerance for punishment as a way out of grinding poverty for his family, and he was an inspiring figure for many in the 1930s. This is not a person trying to find themselves through fisticuffs like Hilary Swank's tragic character in "Million Dollar Baby".
"Cinderella Man" (a title bestowed on Braddock by legendary journalist Damon Runyon) is a superior Hollywood biopic from journeyman director Ron Howard who previously directed Russell Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind", a biopic about a more cerebral man, the brilliant and troubled Nobel prize-winning mathematician John Nash. Hence there is plenty of schmaltz and contrived emotion, almost to Spielbergian proportions, but there are also good production values and thus we get a fine recreation of the look and feel of the depression years in the urban US. There is also some fine acting.
Russell plays Braddock as a fairly quiet, very stoic and steely determined man who sticks to his values throughout. An old-fashioned hero, in fact, with moments of desperation but not much self-doubt (and not much time for it either). He is an exemplary husband and father. It's a pretty low-key performance but well-judged. When he's not throwing telephones at hapless hotel desk clerks Russell can do a good job. Paul Giamatti as Joe the agent gives us a well-rounded character rather than a caricature and Renee Zellweger ably supports Russ as Mae Braddock.
As this is a biopic, it can be revealed that Braddock eventually prevails and was world champion until defeated by Joe Louis two years later. In his championship fight against Max Baer (turned into a bad guy for the purposes of the movie via a wonderful bit of hamming by Craig Bierko), Braddock won by lasting the distance (all 15 rounds) just a bit better than Baer. There is a lot of actual boxing in what is quite a long film and we get to see about half the title fight. For me, the boxing scenes could have been shorter but as we know, people pay to see this sort of thing and Howard is not about to disappoint the crowd. The suspense is terrific, even if you know the result.
But the last word has to be with Paul Simon:
In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him 'til he cried out in his anger and his shame I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains