It's a 'Cinderella' story...

'The Cinderella Man' is a great, uplifting movie that just happens to be true.

By Vince Guerrieri
210 west Managing Editor [send email]

Imagine "Rocky" if it were true.

Imagine a movie that tugs your heartstrings, inspires you to beat your chest and do your Tarzan yell, brings you to the point of tears and makes two hours and 45 minutes fly by.

"The Cinderella Man" is that movie.

Russell Crowe (who goddamn well better get an Oscar nomination for it) plays James J. Braddock, a heavyweight contender who had the world by the short hairs in the 1920s.

Unfortunately, the world is turned upside down by the Great Depression, and Braddock, his wife (Renee Zellweger) and three children go from a two-story house to a one-room flat. Braddock can no longer fight, and works on the docks.

Miraculously, he gets a one-shot deal, a farewell fight at Madison Square Garden. He's expected to be a tomato can, but wins, and keeps winning. The movie climaxes with Braddock's shot at the title against Max Baer (Craig Bierko).

Paul Giamatti is Braddock's manager/trainer, a combination best friend/con artist. Zellweger gets another shot at the warm & fuzzy supportive woman role that first put her on the map in Jerry Maguire. But in the end, it's Russell Crowe's movie, and he's incredible. The Aussie pulls on a New Joisey accent, and his scenes with Zellweger show the incredible pain it must have been to keep a family during the Great Depression.

The movie also shows how the world used to stop on a dime for a heavyweight prizefight. Charlie (my grandfather to the uninitiated) used to tell me stories about hopping a train, going to New York City and watching Joe Louis box at Yankee Stadium. Today, boxing in general is an afterthought, and the heavyweight division has become a farce, as many of the men who would have pursued that career have found other less violent sports.

The main quibble I have with the movie is its casting of Baer as a villain. All he needs is a top hat and a handlebar mustache to make the caricature complete, and it doesn't reflect reality. I really believe that the story of James J. Braddock is dramatic enough without a ham-handed villain, and Bierko plays it just as malevolently and cartoonishly as he played the heavy in "The Long Kiss Goodnight."

But take that for what it is, and go see the movie.