Ringing True

UNVERSAL REMOTE

Ron Howard's Cinderella Man is unquestionably a well-made, well-acted movie that pulls your heart strings and leaves you feeling like a champ. I'm certain the reviews will be very good. But more importantly for the filmmakers, the word-of-mouth is going to be through the roof. People like my parents are going to be climbing over each other to see it. By being a miraculous true story, it gets to have its big uplifting finale without having to feel guilty about it. It literally gets to have its cake and eat it too.

That being said, I predict it will be overrated. It is very good, yes, but something's missing. Somehow Howard and Co. managed to make a movie about a boxer during the Great Ddepression that has little or no conflict in it. James J. Braddock was a nice guy with a nice wife and nice kids. Oh yeah, they're mostly unemployed and have trouble scraping up enough for the electric bill, but after Braddock starts his comeback, that's pretty much pushed aside. I'm not saying I wanted Russell Crowe to turn Braddock into a Raging Bull because clearly the real man was nothing of the sort. He was like everyone else which is why everyone loved him so. But I do think they should have done a better job of portraying the Great Depression. If that isn't something rife with conflict, I don't know what is.

The early parts of the film that deal with his family's financial plight are a good place to start. There is a scene where Braddock is literally counting loose change trying to get enough to pay the bills but coming up about thirty bucks short. When he is later offered $250 to fight as a heavy underdog on a day's notice with no training, I was thrilled for him because I knew it would enable him to pay his bills for a few months assuming he wasn't killed in the ring. This is great storytelling because it makes him earning money for his family suspenseful. After that, with the comeback in full swing, the money aspect of the film is completely dropped.

The Great Depression is an era I know precious little about. Unfortunately, Cinderella Man does little to show how bad it was for so many people. There is one short scene set in the Hoovervilles of Central Park, but there is nothing about the soup and bread lines, nor is it explained how people qualified for public assistance and whether it is enough to live on. I was hoping to walk away knowing more about the era than I did entering the theater. Apollo 13, Howard's best film, is a movie that perfectly integrates history with drama. But I think Howard is too much of a populist to make a movie about the Depression truly depressing, if only for a few minutes.

That being said, the movie does work. Crowe gives another terrific performance, smiling more than I remember him doing in the past. As his trainer, Paul Giamatti is brilliant yet again. (Anthony Lane of The New Yorker hits the nail on the head when he says "there is no plummer part than a boxing coach.") The footwork Giamatti uses to steal every scene should be studied by real fighters. He and Crowe are so good you are almost tricked into believing the movie is as good as you want it to be. Renee Zellweger is fine in an underwritten role and I'm sure all three will be nominated for Oscars along with the film. (If that is true, I'll have to rename my annual Paul Giamatti Award for best performance by an actor that was screwed by the Academy. Then again, Giamatti's particular gift in getting the shaft should not be underestimated.) Craig Bierko is also especially good as champion Max Baer. You can absolutely see why people were afraid for Braddock's life. He has a scene with Crowe the night before the big fight that is great.

I really do think anyone reading this should see the movie. I know it sounds like I have nothing but criticisms for the movie, but in fact, my criticisms exist simply because I admire the filmmakers' past work so much. Howard has always been a bit of an underrated director. The beforementioned Apollo 13 is a truly great film, and A Beautiful Mind, Ransom, The Paper, Backdraft, and Cocoon are still movies that I'll watch whenever I catch them on TV. And Crowe is truly a force to be reckoned with. If he were a slugger, I would say he is in his prime. Enjoy his work as long as you can before he makes too many movies and starts to become familiar. It happens to everybody.