It took me a LONG time to get around to watching Ron Howard’s “Cinderella Man”, starring Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger. I think I’ve had this Netflix movie at home for at least 5-6 weeks. There was something about it that made me want to just sit on it – I wasn’t ready to watch it. I guess I had heard a few negative things about it (slowmoving, too quiet despite being about boxing, Russell Crowe’s whole phone-fight thing around the time it was released), to not be really excited about watching it.
So it sat. But I’m glad I finally put it in late last night!
From Amazon.com:
In a time when America needed a champion, an unlikely hero would arise, proving how hard a man would fight to win a second chance for his family and himself. Suddenly thrust into the national spotlight, boxer Jim Braddock would defy the odds against him and stun the world with one of the greatest comebacks in history. Driven by love for his family, he willed an impossible dream to come true.
This was an amazing movie. At some point during Jim Braddock’s bout with Max Baer I was literally on the edge of my seat chanting, “Don’t let him die! Don’t let him die!” (obviously I am not familiar with this man’s story, otherwise I wouldn’t have been chanting that).
Amazing acting, harrowing depictions of the Depression, stellar writing and fantastic cinematography during the fight scenes all lead me to think this movie definitely deserved more Academy Award nominations than it got.
4 1/2 glasses of milk out of five.