Not matter how hard the script tries to turn Braddock into a symbol of American perseverance, Crowe never portrays him as anything more than a human being.
Cinderella Man (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:200
Fresh:160
Rotten:40
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: With grittiness and an evocative sense of time and place, Cinderella Man is a powerful underdog story. And Ron Howard and Russell Crowe prove to be a solid combination.
Runtime: 2 hrs 25 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $61,548,295
Synopsis: Academy Award®-winning producer Brian Grazer, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (all Oscar® winners for 2001's A Beautiful Mind) are reunited with Oscar® winner Russell Crowe for... Academy Award®-winning producer Brian Grazer, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (all Oscar® winners for 2001's A Beautiful Mind) are reunited with Oscar® winner Russell Crowe for the Universal Pictures-Miramax Films-Imagine Entertainment production, Cinderella Man. Starring opposite Crowe is two-time Oscar® nominee Renée Zellweger. Crowe stars in the story inspired by the life of legendary athlete Jim Braddock, a once-promising light heavyweight boxer forced into retirement after a string of losses in the ring. As the nation enters the darkest years of the Great Depression, Braddock accepts a string of dead-end jobs to support his wife, Mae (Renée Zellweger), and their children, while never totally abandoning his dream of boxing again. Thanks to a last minute cancellation, Braddock finds himself back in the ring against the second-ranked world contender--and to everyone's amazement, Braddock wins in the third round. Despite being pounds lighter than his opponents and repeated injuries to his hands, Braddock continues to fight against challengers and win. Carrying on his shoulders the hopes and dreams of the disenfranchised masses, Braddock, dubbed the "Cinderella Man," faces his toughest challenger in Max Baer (Craig Bierko), the heavyweight champion of the world, renowned for having killed two men in the ring. Cinderella Man stars Russell Crowe, Renée Zellweger and Craig Bierko; is produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Penny Marshall; is written by Cliff Hollingsworth, C. Gaby Mitchell, Akiva Goldsman; and is directed by Ron Howard. The film is a Universal Pictures/Miramax Films co-production of an Imagine Entertainment presentation, with Universal Pictures distributing domestically and Buena Vista International handling the international distribution of the film for Miramax. [More]
Starring: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti, Craig Bierko
Starring: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti, Craig Bierko, Bruce McGill, Paddy Considine
Director: Ron Howard
Director: Ron Howard
Screenwriter: Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman, Cliff Hollingsworth
Producer: Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Penny Marshall, Todd Hallowell
Composer: Thomas Newman
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Cinderella Man
Paul Giamatti steals the show as Braddock's smart-*** trainer and manager, Joe Gould. Maybe it's his Oscar comeuppance.
A movie of great delicacy of feeling... [T]he truth of the story tugs irresistibly at your heart.
Only our predisposed investment in the lead players manages to make the proceedings not too painfully bland.
A solidly entertaining movie - but Russell Crowe is basically playing Seabiscuit.
Crowe's touching portrayal is instrumental in recruiting the audience's sympathies from the get-go.
Ron Howard and Russell Crowe have once again combined their efforts to create a big Hollywood biopic that exudes the strong whiff of Oscar bait.
Cinderella Man wants to be a rousing crowd-pleaser and it probably is, even if Howard has to keeping shouting at the audience to know when to be pleased and aroused.
It seems that Ron Howard has done it again. He keeps on getting better and better...
All that said, I’m still scoring the film pretty high because ultimately I was entertained, enjoyed Crowe’s performance...
Russell Crowe is the new Meryl Streep...all he has to do is be in a movie in any given year and he's a lock for an Oscar nod.
... isn't quite the dream come true it might have been. It lands more than a few punches. But none of them's a knockout -- and neither is the movie.
Caught up as the film's righteous center, Jim is sustained by his concern for his bland and underwritten family.
Cinderella Man is a movie about the indomitability of the American spirit, and those are always far less interesting than movies about actual people.
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