The more you've lived, the more you'll like it.

Rating: 8/10 (9 June 2005)

Cinderella Man starts with a quote saying that the story of Jim Braddock is the most amazing story in all of boxing. By the end of the film, this is self-evident. This is a wonderful film. You would have to be very cynical to not feel empathy towards the characters and feel moved by their struggles.
That being said, there are a few problems with the film. The first is that it provides very little historical context. The film starts when boxer Braddock (a pitch-perfect performance by Russell Crowe, who seems born and bred in New Jersey) is at his peak, never getting knocked down in the ring and earning enough money to live comfortably with his family. It then cuts to four years later, after the depression has hit and he has become a failure, losing matches to the point where he is disbarred. He is now living in a small, drafty apartment. You overhear that he started losing matches and hasn't been able to book a fight, but for a while, it takes some time to get orientated in his new life, four years after his success.
Later on in the film, a crisis involving his friend Mike Wilson and a "Hooverville" shantytown in Central Park also fails to provide context. It is unclear what happened in the park, how involved Wilson was in it, and who Wilson even really was. He goes from almost beating his wife in one scene to supporting Braddock as though nothing ever happened in the next. We understand Braddock's values, but not Wilson's. Was he a communist? Unclear. Did he cause the riot in the park? Was it even a riot? The movie doesn't explain this well, and nothing is done with the subplot, expect to suggest that it's hard to lose loved ones, especially during the depression. But like the starting quote, this is pretty self-evident.
The other major problem with the film is in its depiction of Max Baer. True, in real life he was flamboyant, but was also deeply grieved by the deaths of the men he killed in the ring. In the film he makes sexist and offensive comments to Braddock in the ring and in a restaurant, which turns the final scenes in a way that's false in comparison to what came before them. Braddock fights because he wants to know that they have a say in their life and that he can make things better for his family. The most powerful scenes in the film involve the hits to Braddock's pride (having to go on welfare, begging his friends for money, not being able to provide for his family), not the hits to his face. But when it comes time for Braddock to face Baer in the ring, the way Baer is depicted turns the outcome to our wanting to see this offensive man punished by the moral Braddock. We want to see Baer get eaten when we should want to see Braddock get fed.
In the classic film Rocky, Rocky wants to go the distance to prove he's not a bum, the same way Braddock wants to have control over his life. But in Rocky, it almost doesn't matter if he wins or loses so long as he proves something to himself. In Cinderella Man, it matters who wins, and it shouldn't. The film would be more powerful if Baer, like the electrician who had to do his job and turn off Braddock's electricity so he didn't become unemployed too, was portrayed as a decent, or at least more complex, character. If he didn't want to hurt Braddock, but knew he had to do everything he could to keep getting fights- and more money. Even if this meant hurting a good person like Braddock. The film is moving because it shows people doing things they have to do but don't want to: begging, stealing, turning off someone's power. It is not moving because an obnoxious character is defeated.
These faults do not detract from the film as a whole, though. It is wonderfully acted by the entire cast. It is beautifully shot, with all the period details exact. Director Ron Howard is wise in not forcing the emotions. When Braddock's wife, played by Renée Zellweger, learns that Baer killed two men in the ring, the film simply regards her as she processes this information, begins to fear for her husband, while trying to keep her composure. This is much better than her knowing about Baer from the start, and only deciding to stand by her husband in the end. Also notice the way Crowe plays the scene where he asks for money from his former friends. He's ashamed of what he has to do, but too proud to not do it and send the kids away. Watching him try and keep his dignity is far more powerful than it would be if he broke down and cried over his bad fortune.
Even though the film ends happily, it is draining. It is rare that the movies give us a character that is as completely deserving of a happy ending as Braddock. He struggles through the whole film, and the audience struggles with him. And if you have kids or ever had to take a blow to your pride, it just makes the film that much more powerful.
It's nice to walk out of a movie and not feel guilty about going to see it. I doubt that anyone other than the most cynical would walk out of Cinderella Man and regret going to see it. The only thing I felt guilty about was that I could go home to a house filled with food and warmth, a luxury denied to Jim Braddock. And he never even complained about it.