CINDERELLA MAN A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
CINDERELLA MAN is an uplifting biopic about a prize fighter who got one of the greatest second chances in sports history. James J. Braddock (Russell Crowe) went in one year from the bread line to a fight against the heavyweight champion of the world, Max Baer, played brilliantly by a scene stealing Craig Bierko. Bierko has to be an instant front-runner for the best supporting actor Oscar.
As directed by Ron Howard (A BEAUTIFUL MIND), the film does not pull its punches, amply demonstrating how truly dangerous the sport is. Baer's right arm is so long that it appears he could hit Braddock in his New Jersey home straight from Madison Square Garden, where all of the big matches are held. It is palpably easy to believe that Baer did kill two people in the ring.
The movie itself, at almost two and a half hours, is not exactly in fighting trim, throwing in everything from America's toying with Communism during the depths of the Depression to an over-the-top incident of Braddock paying back his welfare money while still living in a tenement.
The movie starts in 1928 when Braddock is rapidly on his way to the top, but quickly cuts to 1933, four years into the Great Depression, as the subtitles remind us. Most of the first half of the story is about Braddock and his supportive wife (Renée Zellweger) trying to cope with three kids and almost no money. He lost his first fortune on bad investments from stocks to taxicabs. With a hand that had been broken many times, Braddock had long since lost his license to box.
One day, the promoters need a fighter on a day's notice, so Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti), Braddock's old trainer, gets his man a temporary reinstatement, and the rest is history.
Any lingering doubts about the film are dispelled in a superb, edge of your seat, ending bout, as Braddock and Baer engage in a classic slugfest, that is cinema at very best. It isn't clear who will emerge victorious, but Braddock is clearly a winner just for having gotten the fight in the first place.
CINDERELLA MAN runs a little too long at 2:24. It is rated PG-13 for "intense boxing violence and some language" and would be acceptable for teenagers. The level of violence is what you normally expect to see only in R-rated films.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, June 3, 2005. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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