Cinderella Man Movie Review  

This is one of those great movies where you are glad you were able to find tissue in your purse.

That is, you are glad you didn’t wear make-up, especially eye make-up.

Great scenes:

• Crowe passing out his hat—Russell Crowe shows how he can continually heighten his performances in this scene by making you feel with him as he “begs.”  He also shows how he can grow as an actor from an already high level by taking on a boxer fighting in the ring and successfully making this “real.”  Crowe shows the effective subtlety of his acting while he hopes for employment at the docks while surrounded with many, other unemployed men.

• Crowe and Zellweger argue over the fact she sent the kids away—needed to show the reality of their situation (this stays with the tone of the movie—no need to show other realistic scenes such as the kids arguing over who gets a toy).

• Giamatti in his empty apartment.  Acting like you have made the choice to “lose everything” on an instinctive bet is something that must be communicated on the big screen and Giamatti does this well.  He shows this again in another strong scene when he “pitches” to the businessman to give Braddock another fight. 

As far as the boxing scenes, something that was very much appreciated was how Howard started these scenes.  None of them started with Crowe and his opponent facing each other from their corners and about to fight.  This was shown only after the fight started and the latter rounds were about to begin.  So every time a fight was about to be shown, it started with the fight already taking place.

Shots from the “ceiling” are appreciated.  The panning of the camera in the dark to move from one fight to another is a great use of transition.

The detail of the robe—Braddock uses someone else’s when he begins his “second chance” and uses his own when he fights Baer in the end.

Crowe, Giamatti, and Zellweger make the triumvirate that make this movie work.  Ron Howard may have had a difficult time choosing which scenes to keep because for sure, there must have been many to choose from.