Review of Cinderella Man (2005) by Adam M. F — 25 Nov 2010

I love this movie for so many reasons and I just saw this movie not a couple weeks ago. Not only does it portray the Great Depression so accurately, you can't help but root for Russell Crowe, our protagonist. Also, I didn't know that it actually was based on a true-to-life story, I thought that it was just incredibly well-written and told fiction, but I was wrong.

The story is about the life of James J. Braddock (played by Russell Crowe), a famous boxer in the '20s, but a down-and-out unemployed boxer in the 30's, trying to support a wife (Renee Zellweger) and three children. This movie is similar to Rocky in a way that it's a down-on-his luck ordinary guy doing manual labour and ends up winning a big match and being happy. The main differences being that Rocky didn't have a family and he came across the big match by other means.

The acting is absolutely great. Anybody who knows my taste in movies knows that I don't much care for Russell Crowe, but this movie actually made me like his acting. I don't like Renee Zellweger either, but she did very well also. The supporting cast did great, there's really no complaints I can make about them, they all did incredibly well. Nothing else to say about that.

The set pieces depicted the dirty thirties so well I felt that I was actually in the movie. I'm not kidding, it was that realistic. The story is also well told and keeps things moving along nicely. Like I said, a true underdog story that makes you root for the protagonist.

If you haven't seen this movie, you should definitely see it. Simply brilliant, it is a movie that once you see, you will not soon forget. I will not say that it's better than Rocky, but I will say that it's pretty much just as good. All in all, a terrific movie experience.