Cinderella Man
dir. Howard
Opens Fri June 3
Various Theaters
More and more, boxing is the “go to” sport for rousing bored movie audiences–which isn’t surprising, considering America’s current political climate. The red states love the plucky, dumb underdog who, by using sheer force of will (and a dollop of violence), overcomes poverty and an uncaring upper class. Such is the case once again with Ron Howard’s newest historical biopic, Cinderella Man, which is based on the life of the plucky, dumb heavyweight champion Jim Braddock.
Russell Crowe plays Braddock, a Depression-era fighter who woulda been a contender had it not been for that pesky Depression. Down, down, and down he spirals, along with his plucky wife (Renée Zellweger) and three adorably plucky kids. His career is further extinguished when his boxing license is revoked by an uncaring upper class. Forced to beg for money and apply for welfare, Braddock jumps at one last chance in the ring–even though he’s wildly outclassed, and must suffer the whiney badgering of an overprotective wife. Naturally he wins, and now that he’s fighting for a reason (to feed his family), Braddock slugs his way back to the top–BUT AT WHAT PRICE?!
Predictable director Ron Howard continues to furnish his audience with a shocking lack of surprises–though his attention to historical detail is refreshing, especially in the ring, where the he nails the stunted fighting style of the era to a tee. Crowe plays Braddock with a nice sense of restraint and quiet fortitude, but the same can’t be said for Zellweger, who is (surprise!) once again eye-rollingly awful, and very nearly sinks a decent movie. Thank heavens then for the always-wonderful Paul Giamatti, who as Braddock’s trainer, appears to have stepped straight out of an MGM feature from the ’30s, and is worth the price of admission alone.
While a solid, if unsurprising, entry in the ever growing canon of boxing films, the moral of a pig-headed American risking his own safety (and unthinkingly, that of his family) in order to follow his moral code is a little too selfish and President Bush-y for my tastes. Million Dollar Baby, and even Rocky are examples of boxing films that go deeper–while Cinderella Man‘s story may be “historical,” that doesn’t necessarily make it a lesson worth learning.
