SEABISCUIT in a boxing ring
Cinderella Man is precisely what you should expect from a Ron Howard movie--slick, well-funded & glossy production values, neat & tidy story, inspiring that simplifies the world in a way that's pretty unrealistic. It's not bad, it's not good, it's just like every other movie he's ever made--competent, but uninspiring.Trapped for a while in the world of development hell, Cinderella Man, really has the unfortunate opportunity to follow Seabiscuit and Million Dollar Baby, both of which steal the story and arena for Howard's latest film. Like the horse movie, Cinderella Man, is a true story about a sports figure in the Great Depression who overcomes mammoth adversity, fights his way from the bread line to Park Avenue's finest restaurants, inspiring people as he does. Like Million Dollar Baby, the heart of the film however, lies in the relationship between the fighter (Russell Crowe) and in this case, his wife (Renee Zellweger).
Crowe and Zellweger give expectedly solid performances, as well as a nice turn from Paddy Cosidine, playing a co-worker of Crowe's character, James J. Braddock. (And it took me half the movie to convince myself I was actually seeing Craig Bierko in the role in which I was watching Craig Bierko. Very surprising.) Akiva Goldsman's script is economical and effective. There was a little too much boxing in it for me, but then after the movie, I got into a philosophical discussion about the base nature of boxing with my companion, so maybe any boxing is too much boxing for me. (But then again, it didn't bother me that much in Baby.)
The moral content of the film is very nice. Despite a little bit of swearing, the film is free of sex and violence (minus the boxing matches). The story highlights the pro-family themes missing in a lot of contemporary films. It also takes the time to emphasize the importance of religion in daily life.
The problem in the film is there aren't any surprises. Nothing made me gasp (unlike the thought of Anakin slaughtering Jedi children in Revenge of the Sith), cry, or sit up unexpectedly. It was all routine, expected, but ultimately watchable. The only thing inspired in the film was Paul Giamatti's performance as Crowe's manager. He relishes with great aplomb the chance to play a guy who's harder, tougher, crasser, and ultimately, more aware of the world than the man he's helping.
Howard does deviate from his standard film-making skills and tries to create a couple of new tricks to his standard repitoire. At times, he uses filtered film and flashbacks to try and create a greater sense of urgency and though it doesn't distract, it adds nothing special to the film. Ultimately, it's impossible to wish that Howard weren't learning ideas from his producing and narrating duties while on Arrested Development. Maybe he could steal some notions from them and create something really inspiring--though I don't expect that to come up in The Da Vinci Code which he's working on now.
posted by cinegod @ 6:28 PM
2 Comments:
WHAT!? Anthony, you've done it again. Managed to find flaws and mediocrity in a movie that inspired and thrilled me more than any movie I've seen in the last few years.
"Cinderella Man" is the film "Million Dollar Baby" wanted to be...
I'm curious to see Barbara's reaction to this movie.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go over to my blog and GUSH over Cinderella Man.
LAQ
I just wrote one hell of a long reply to your comment on my blog:)
Tag you're it, man.
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