Genre: Drama, Marriage, Sports
Tagline: One man's extraordinary fight to save the family he loved.
Plot: The story begins when Braddock (Russell Crowe)—once full of promise—is forced into retirement from boxing after a run of bad luck, just as America itself is sliding into the most frightening hard economic times the nation has ever known. Facing imminent poverty, Jim wants only to do right by the woman who has always been his source of strength—his feisty wife Mae (Renée Zellweger). At first, he takes a string of dead-end dock jobs that only seem to leave him poorer. But soon, the tightly-wedded couple are drowning in debt and emotionally devastated to see their children shivering in an unheated apartment amid the dead of a Jersey winter.Then, as a result of the efforts of Jim’s indefatigable manager, Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti), Jim gets an out-of-the-blue, last-ditch shot to fight in Madison Square Garden—and more importantly, a chance to put some food on the table for those he loves. Despite being too old, too hungry and too injured to be considered a real contender—and in direct opposition to Mae’s strident fears for her husband’s life—Braddock nevertheless steps back into the ring without any training. Stunning the crowd and the media, he knocks out his rising-star opponent…thanks in part to a powerful hook developed during countless hours of dock work. But it doesn’t stop
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Behind the Scenes:
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 This is 2005's Seabiscuit, an inspirational, "adult" drama thrown into theaters in the midst of the summer's blockbusters. As counter-programming, it may be successful, but as entertainment, it's on the bubble. To use a boxing metaphor, it lands a few solid punches, but never achieves anything close to a knock-out.  --James Berardinelli (ReelViews)
But in the hands of Howard and company, the telling of the tale is rendered into such an unimpeachable hagiography that there is no point of reference with which the audience can identify. Worse, it makes rooting for him seems almost presumptuous, as though it would demonstrate a lack of the proper and unflagging faith that the audience is reminded at every turn and is Jimmy's right and his due. It's an interesting artistic choice, but, alas, the wrong one.  --Andrea Chase (Killer Movie Reviews)
I suppose director Howard and screenwriters Cliff Hollingsworth and Akiva Goldsman have glossed over some of the aspects of Braddock’s life that might have been ordinary in order to make this film, but I can forgive them for that because “Cinderella Man”is not about the ordinary, it is about the greatness and the goodness and the honor that lives inside most of us, still.--Jim Pappas
“Million Dollar Baby” built to what happens after the match is over. “Cinderella Man” is more about what happens before the fight and how, punch by punch, one man uses the ring to bring his family back from the brink.  --Steven Snyder
Here is a movie where a good man prevails in a world where every day is an invitation to despair, where resentment would seem fully justified, where doing the right thing seems almost gratuitous, because nobody is looking and nobody cares.  --Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times)
This is how you know you have a great movie on your hands folks – when I start talking about the set and costume design, you can almost guarantee that I'm one step away from wanting the movie to have my children. "Cinderella Man,” much like its main character, is a gem of an underdog story that will leave you feeling as high as a kite upon leaving the theater. It's the best and most heart-wrenching movie of the year, a definitive must see. A--Craig Younkin (Lee's Movie Info)
Watching Baer and Braddock go a punishing fifteen rounds ends Cinderella Man on a note of riveting suspense. But the film stays focused on the human drama. It's the classic American tale of the family man triumphant, and Howard makes sure that it hits you right in the heart. --Peter Travers (Rolling Stone)
The truth may be stranger than fiction, but it's also a helluva lot more inspiring. And when it comes to a great American story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, get under your skin and stay with you long after you leave the theater, it doesn't get any better or more inspiring than "Cinderella Man."--Scott Mantz
For all its play-it-safe tendencies, however, "Cinderella Man" does boast a most valuable player. And, as usual, it's Crowe.--Carol Cling
Those early dark and gritty Depression sequences give the movie its sense of place and time, and they serve as the doorway to the movie’s great heart.--Betty Jo Tucker
Like all sports movies, this one works its way to a convulsive showdown with a heavily favored rival. But by then Braddock is no longer in the ring against just one man, he's taking on the entire Depression. Needless to say, it gets crowded in there. --Bruce Newman
HYPERBOLIC sportswriter Damon Runyon dubbed Depression-era boxer James Braddock the "Cinderella Man" and sure enough, Ron Howard's bio-pic is an Oscar-baiting fairy tale that manipulates the audience at every turn of the clich‚.  --Lou Lumenick (New York Post)
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| Directed by |
Ron Howard
The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13 |
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| Cast |
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 | Craig Bierko
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Scary Movie 4, The Long Kiss Goodnight | | | |
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| Music By |
Thomas Newman
The Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty, The Green Mile |
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| Like the soft-focused sepia tones that characterize all the film’s backgrounds, Cinderella Man reflects us back to ourselves through the gauzy blur of a manmade scrim. --Marjorie Baumgarten (Austin Chronicle)
For the most part, boxing movies are all very much the same. There is a sense here that you’re getting a real life version of Rocky in Cinderella Man, but that fictional Stallone flick did a better job of establishing a tone and feeling. Howard’s boxing tale is just too polished, striving to be inspirational yet perhaps comes off as far too sentimental. Although a real story, it never actually feels real.  --Michael Sheridan (Tailslate.net)
Some critics may knock this film for being overly sentimental, and Howard's no novice at pulling heartstrings. But I felt the director stopped just short of falling over the edge. We needed heroes in the 1930s, and we need them today, and "Cinderella Man" is the unashamed story of a hero.--Paul Clinton (CNN Showbiz)
There is nothing to dislike about the film. The only bit of reasoning keeping the dollar rating below from hitting a ten out of ten is that, the perfect ten has always been reserved for films that made us want to get back on line to see a second time, immediately.--Chuck Schwartz (The Cranky Critic)
Obvious and manipulative as much as it is handsome and sensitively acted, "Cinderella Man" wants to be a rousing crowd-pleaser and it probably is, even if Howard has to keeping shouting at the audience to know when to be pleased and aroused.--Daniel Fienberg
So it's to his credit that, even after I considered how possibly unfair the movie was to Baer (and his family, for that matter), even after wading through its play-it-safe script, I still can't help appreciating the confidence with which he conducts the rousing last act. And feeling guilty about falling for it, yet again. 6/10--Jeffrey Chen (WindowToMovies.com)
Zellweger even gets to speak some dialogue comparable to Natalie Portman's cheesy lines in Star Wars . On a brighter note, I guarantee you that nothing getting blown up this season will be more explosive than Paul Giamatti.--Christopher Campbell (CineScene)
Howard's Jimmy gives edge-of-the-seat punch to a solidly slick project. Lensing is lush, period details impeccable and fight footage first-rate. Cinderella Man is sure to be a summer crowd pleaser. --Jeanne Aufmuth
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