Cinderella Man

So I watched this a couple of days ago but I got caught up with the holidays and hanging out with family that I haven't gotten around to reviewing the film until now. Here's my review of Cinderella Man.

So I feel like I've been watching a lot of movies that other people have recommended to me. Movies that either were highly praised by friends and they pushed me into watching it, or movies that were highly praised in general and I thought it was just a film that I needed to watch to stay in the conversation. Cinderella Man is not really a movie that I was losing sleep having not watched it, but when I saw that it was on Netfix, I immediately put it on my list. Ever since I watched Creed late last year I've realized that I have not watched enough boxing movies in my life. Put on top of that that I really like Russell Crowe, Cinderella Man was a film that I was actually interested in by my own volition.

Cinderella Man takes place in the midst of the Great Depression. It's the true story of James Braddock (played by Russell Crowe) as he used to be an up and coming name in the world of boxing. Now he faces injury and eventually breaks his hand during a fight making him unable to compete.

This is extremely difficult for him as he only wants to provide for his family, including his wife (played by Rene Zellweger) and his 3 children.

The story basically centers around him falling to the lowest of lows and his climb back up to fame and fortune as eventually he trains to get back in the ring and take on the best of the best boxers of the time.

And this is a very emotional movie. There is a part early on in this movie that I was legitimately tearing up because of the desperation this guy hits. This is not just a story about boxing, but it's also about the haves and have nots. This is a story about the heart ache and the desperation seen during the Great Depression in one of the most emotional representations of the times I've seen before. The Great Depression really hasn't been a time period I've been interested up until some of the movies I've watched pretty recently and Cinderella Man is probably the best representation of how hard people were hit during the time, but again, it's a story of resilience.

I don't know if its the music, the performances, the story, or maybe a little bit of both, but this is a very emotional and dramatic movie that really spoke to me. I was tearing up more than once in this film and I loved it.

The great part is you want this guy to succeed. His struggle is painful and it's worth so much when he builds him and his family up.

You grow to love him as a person who will stop at nothing to provide for his family, you grow to love his family, and the harsh conditions they're in.

At a certain point, Jim Braddock becomes the every man's hero and it works really well. Now it might be a little bit sappy here and there, but I thought it worked really well and if it's just playing to people's emotions, it worked on me.

The first thing when you think of this movie might be a Rocky film set in the Great Depression and while that is a part of it, Cinderella Man really isn't too much of a boxing sport movie rather than it being a dramatic emotional movie that happens to center around boxing. Russell Crowe is kind of channeling his own Sylvester Stallone from Rocky in this film, but the difference is that Crowe is just a stronger actor and he brings a really great performance.

Renee Zellweger plays his wife and she brings another aspect to the desperation of the Depression because she's the one at home with the kids and she's the one who is probably hit hardest by the Depression because she can't provide basic food and proper shelter for her children.

But it gets really good when the boxing comes into the story.

Paul Giamatti plays Braddock's fight manager and the great part about this character is that he just always seems to have Braddock's back. He's a realist and he does what he needs to do in his line of work, but at the same time he has all this hope in Braddock and pushes him to be the best.

And the boxing matches themselves are really great.

If I haven't said it already, I will say it multiple times in this review, this is not so much a boxing movie as it is a drama about perseverance with boxing as one of its cornerstones.

The cinematography of the fights may not be as great as the Rocky films but the movie is more focused on the emotional impact and what these fights mean to Jim rather than just giving the audience a cool fight to watch. That being said, the boxing matches are still intense and they will leave you on the edge of your seat because there is such an emotional stake in this fight.

Something cool they add in the fights are the x-ray shots that show the impact of certain punches on the fighters bodies. They might be a little inconsistent for the time period and may seem out of place, but they still get you nervous and make you cringe a bit. But the real call back to the emotional trauma in this movie is the flashbacks showing Jimmy's kids in poverty and what is driving him, again, falling back on emotional punches being thrown instead of the physical.

Like most true stories I review on here, I can only say that "based on a true story" is a little bit of a liberty used to make the story more emotionally charged. It sounds like a lot of this happened but at the same time a lot of it didn't. The more important thing to focus on is the drama and the story being told here and know that there is some sense of truth being told.

I would honestly say the only problem I have with this film is not even one I have but something I imagine others would have with it, and that is the movie's sappiness. Like I mentioned it is pretty emotional and there were a couple of moments where I cried because the performances were so good powerful. But I was in the right mood and mindset to watch this movie and be brought it by it. You may find yourself finding this movie a little bit sappy at times, but I think it works for the credit of the film and the performances within it.

Overall, I can say with a good bit of certainty that this might be my favorite film of the long list of films I've reviewed in the past few weeks as I've been clearing out my Netflix list. I think it's a great story of resiliency and something I would definitely watch again if I needed a good pick me up.

You might ask if this is going to set me on a path of watching a lot of boxing movies and for a minute there I thought I was going to, but the truth is, I just don't do that.

I had the same emotional reaction to this movie that I did when I saw Creed last year. I was so wrapped up in the emotional power of this movie that it makes me think for a second that I'm going to binge watch all the Rocky movies.

And while I probably could, I don't really know if I want to. To me, boxing movies have a great impact with the suspense and usually the story driving it and I love the adrenaline I get from watching them. I don't want that to go away and I feel like watching them like that would make that feeling go away.

I'm hoping to start watching movie Rocky films as I kind of said I was going to do that last year, but it will definitely be at a slow pace.

But overall, Cinderella Man was a great sports movie, it was a great period piece, and it was a great drama about overcoming obstacles. If you haven't seen it already, go out and check this one out, it's definitely worth the time.

But those are my thoughts on Cinderella Man! What did you think? How does it compare to the Rocky films? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. This is totally unrelated but apparently Carrie Fisher just passed away. My thoughts go out to her family. While I'm surprised how quickly this video went up, here's one remembering her.