In brief: I had to hold back tears at the end. A powerful true story about a guy I didn't even realize was from my neighborhood.
Story by Cliff Hollingsworth
Screenplay by Cliff Hollingsworth and Akiva Goldsman
Directed by Ron Howard
---Guest Cast:
Russell Crowe as Jim Braddock
Renée Zellweger as Mae Braddock
Paul Giamatti as as Joe Gould
Craig Bierko as as Max Baer
Paddy Considine as Mike Wilson
Bruce McGill as Jimmy Johnston
Connor Price Jay Braddock
Ariel Waller as Rosemarie Braddock
Patrick Louis as Howard Braddock
Rosemarie DeWitt as Sara Wilson
Linda Kash as Lucille Gould
Nicholas Campbell as Sporty Lewis
Gene Pyrz as Jake
Chuck Shamata as Father Rorick
About two miles north of my house is a park, about half the size of Central Park, which since my childhood was called Hudson County Park. Whenever the market research company I work for holds movie screenings in Edgewater, I have to walk through it to get there. Some time ago, I noticed the name was changed to James J. Braddock park. I had no idea who that was, and figured it was some New Jersey politician after whom it was named. Then I read in the Union City Reporter that the upcoming film Cinderella Man, which I had some knowledge of, was about the boxer James J. Braddock. It turns out, he lived in North Bergen (just next door to my hometown of Union City), and worked at the docks down in Hoboken (where I was born).
Whoa! I had I no idea! That's the guy from the park???
Now I just had to see this film. The trailers looked incredible. I read about his story. And I even caught a series a week or two ago called Reel History, a series which explored the truth behind movies “based on true stories”, the episode of which I saw focusing on James Braddock, and featuring interviews with stars Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger, and director Ron Howard.
In the film, James Braddock is good boxer with a strong right hand, and a weak left, a family man, and proud. Fighting at one point with a right hand that was broken in three places, the referee is forced to stop the fight, enraging promoter Jimmy Johnston so badly that Braddock's license is taken away, and refuses to even pay him for the fight. When the Depression hits, Braddock lost much of his money, which was in stocks, and he and his wife struggled to keep the heat turned on and milk on the table. He is forced to the work lines in Hoboken, where he tries covering up his bad right hand, and compensates with his left. What separates this film from other boxing films is its focus on Braddock the family man, and how humbling and bleak the Depression made America during the 30's, when Hoovervilles sprang up in Central Park, people ripped strips of wood off fences for firewood, and all hope seems lost. Braddock, nonetheless, is proud and principled. When he discovers his older son has stolen food, he takes him back to the owner and has him apologize. He promises his son he'll keep the family together, and refuses to accept government assistance. But the milk goes past due. And then the heat gets turned off. His son gets sick, and with his wife seaking refuge in an alley to cry over her inability to protect her children, Braddock eventually swallows his pride and goes to the Emergency Relief Agency, where the woman behind the window tells him she never thought she'd see him in there.
And then, a glimmer of hope. The promoter decides to give him license for one fight, and only the challenger cancelled, and with only 24 hours notice, no other fighter would take it. His stomach growling with hunger in the minutes before the fight, Braddock, hungry for victory both literally and figuratively, gets a second chance. Fighting the highly touted John “Corn” Griffin, Braddock appears to be an underdog, but his left hand, having had a workout at the docks, is now stronger, giving him a greater left-right balance. Witness an exchange between Braddock's surprised opponent and his cornerman in between rounds:
“What are you doing? You beat this guy easy last time!”
“He ain't the same guy.”
A decent man, Braddock even repays the $323 dollars the government gave him. But he returns to the docks, telling his coworkers, including one friend whose less fortunate financial situation puts a strain on him, that it was just a one time thing. But more opportunities present themselves. The handlers of the world heavyweight champion, Max Baer, want Braddock to fight the champ, but only because he'll guarantee an easy payday for Baer, who had killed two men in the ring. Braddock is out of his prime, years out of training, and has arthritis. The match is seen as such an outrageous pairing that critics call it “murder”, and Johnston is so skeptical that he shows Braddock movies of Baer's fights in order to legally cover his hide. His wife abhors the very idea of the fight, and refuses to even let the kids listen to the radio that night.
It is here that the movie transcends typical boxing movie clichés, not simply because it really happened, but because Braddock, a family man just trying to feed his kids, was seen by many as representing them. At a time when poverty joblessness was rampant, and the champ was a womanizer, Braddock was someone through which the public lived vicariously. When Braddock's wife Mae goes to church to pray for Jim, she is shocked to see that the pews are filled with others doing the same.
The movie is impressively shot, and I enjoyed it far more than Crowe and Howard's last pairing, A Beautiful Mind. I can't recommend this film enough, though I would encourage those interested to learn about the real Jim Braddock, warts and all, by watching Real History, or by researching him. He is a fascinating individual.
Me, I have a new reason to smile when I cross that park now.
The newspaper ads for this film bear a strong resemblance to the cover of the John Lennon/Yoko Ono record "Double Fantasy."
The AMC theatre chain is offering you your money back if you don't like Cinderella Man, which, despite acclaim, is dying at the box office. More on that here.
That's an outrage. This is one of the best movies of the year. That it isn't doing successfully at the box office is a huge injustice.
They can't all be embraced by the masses. I am a little surprised this one's had such a hard time though. Ron Howard directing, Oscar winners starring, along with a few other notables, not to mention that it is one of the best films of the summer. Was it not advertised much? Are people getting tired of Crowe? Does it have something to do with box office sales slumping in general? Combination of those things? Or maybe in a summer that's had more quality movies than usual, especially with the blockbusters, it got lost in the shuffle.
Sorry but I gotta agree. This movie just does not look like its something I would wanna go pay money to see in a theator. This is somethign I'll wait until my library gets the dvd and check it out for free.
It has nothign to do with anything other than this movie does not look gripping, interesting or otherwise calling to me to come see it. Just one person's reason for not going. And most of my friends agree with me about not wanting to go spend money to see this.
Cinderella Man was re-released into theaters on a limited basis on 11/18/05, and will be released on DVD December 6.
And, Cinderella Man premieres on HBO June 24.
Universal, which for years did not license most of their films to HBO, has apparently made peace with them in the past few years. (For a long time, almost all Universal films were licensed to Starz/Encore.) The upside is that films like Cinderella Man can be seen by a wider audience, as HBO has more subscribers than Starz does. The downside is that HBO is reaching into Universal's vault for twaddle like the God-awful late '80's Dan Aykroyd/John Candy vehicle The Great Outdoors.
quote:Are people getting tired of (Russell) Crowe?