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The Movie:
After the misstep of the overlong "Missing", director Ron Howard finds himself on much stronger footing with the tale of boxing star Jim Braddock in "Cinderella Man", the director's second feature starring actor Russell Crowe. While the film's release had to deal with negative press from the much-publicized indicent with Crowe throwing a phone, the other news story the film generated was that, in a move that would certainly be called a "first", theater chains AMC and Cinemark offered to refund customer's money if they saw "Cinderella Man" and didn't like the film. Reportedly, only a few people took them up on the refund offer.
"Cinderella Man" stars Crowe as Jim Braddock, a fighter who, as the movie opens, is working his way up the ranks, with nervous support from his wife, Mae (Renee Zellweger). When the Great Depression hits, any sort of work is difficult to come by, leading Braddock to take whatever jobs he can. With money gone from a series of bad investments, Braddock and his wife and children get by on whatever they can. Things continue to get worse, until longtime friend and former manager Joe Gould gives Braddock another shot in the ring when he needs someone for a local fight. Braddock, completely not expected to win, somehow manages to get the upper hand in the fight and wins. He continues the streak, which leads up to a title fight against the much-favored Max Baer (Craig Bierko), whose fighting record includes beating an opponent to death in the ring. The film's boxing sequences, which are quite brutal, are well-filmed.
The film is lead by a terrific performance from Russell Crowe, and it certainly stands out as one of the actor's finer efforts. Crowe's portrayal of a man who is hurt more by the difficulties supporting his family (and keeping them together when it becomes necessary to send the kids to better-off relatives) than anything he takes in a fight is engaging and powerful, yet still pretty subtle in comparison to some of the actor's other works. Just as good is Giamatti, whose effort as Braddock's loyal manager is yet another fierce, award-worthy performance from the "Sideways" actor. Zellweger has more chemistry with Crowe than I'd thought she'd have, but the character isn't substancial enough as written and, despite some well-played emotional scenes, the character never quite connects consistently enough. There are definitely some Big Emotional Moments here, but I felt the performances earned them.
"Cinderella" is also just about Howard's best-looking effort, with beautifully composed cinematography from Salvatore Totino ("Changing Lanes", Howard's "The Missing"), superb production design from Wynn Thomas ("Beautiful Mind"), set decoration from Gordon Sim ("Chicago"), score from Thomas Newman and great work from several other departments, as well. The movie recreates the time period exceptionally well, and care has obviously been taken to try to recreate it down to the smallest detail. I'd be surprised if the film wasn't up for at least a few awards in the technical catagories when awards season rolls around.
The movie isn't without some issues, although I didn't feel that they took away from the movie greatly. First, Howard continues to be a director who can't seem to tighten his films. "Missing" was substancially overlong, and while I never found "Cinderella Man" boring, I did think that 145 minutes did seem like a bit much for the story. Bringing the picture down to closer to two hours could have helped pacing. While there are moments where the picture becomes a bit melodramatic and manipulative, it never stayed that way long enough for the film to suffer much from it. Finally, while I thought the acting was excellent, at the core this is still a very traditional, familiar (and as a result, rather predictable) underdog tale that's been told before.
However, while the story is rather conventional, the performances by Crowe and Giamatti (who absolutely become both of their characters) and excellent work by the crew take what could have been a conventional story to another level. While this isn't a film without a few flaws, it works strongly enough in so many regards that I still consider it one of the best films I've seen this year.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Cinderella Man" is presented by Universal in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The presentation quality is generally top notch, as the image looked consistently sharp and well-defined, aside from a few low-light interiors.
The presentation did have a few minor flaws, however: a couple of minor artifacts show up, as do a few slight instances of edge enhancement. Overall, these issues were brief and insubstancial. Colors sometimes appeared warm, but generally a tad subdued, but this was likely intentional. Colors appeared accurately presented, as did flesh tones. Overall, this is a very nice effort. A very cropped pan & scan edition is also available.
SOUND: The film's Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation opens up substancially during the fight sequences, with a good deal of ambience in the surrounds, which also reinforce Thomas Newman's score. Otherwise, the audio folds up to the front, which is understandable, as much of the film is dialogue-driven. Dialogue, music and sound effects sounded crisp and well-recorded.
EXTRAS: Included with the film are three optional commentaries: one from director Ron Howard, one from writer Akiva Goldsman and one from writer Cliff Hollingsworth.
The deleted scenes section offers nearly 21 minutes of footage. While there are some very good scenes here (including some between Crowe and Giamatti and Crowe and Zellweger). While plenty of DVD deleted scenes sections offer minimal material, the deleted scenes here are actually worthwhile viewing.
"The Fight Card" is a 23-minute piece that offers interviews with Howard, Crowe, casting director Jane Jenkins, Giamatti, producer Brian Grazer Zellweger and others. Although it does seem a tad fluffy at times, the piece does take a fairly in-depth look at the casting of the film, the development of the movie and what drew those involved to the project. Howard's discussion of working with the actors is rather praise-heavy, but the two actors contribute some enjoyable insights into their characters and their experiences working on the film.
"The Man, The Movie, The Legend" is a 14-minute piece that looks into the process of turning Crowe into Braddock. "For The Record: History of Boxing" is a shorter (6:37) piece that has legendary boxing trainer Angelo Dundee discussing his work training Russell Crowe, working with Paul Giamatti, being in a cameo and overseeing the fight scenes during production. It's obvious that Dundee is a great character from his interviews here, and he's a lot of fun to listen to.
"Ringside Seats" is a 9-minute featurette discussing a meeting that Ron Howard had with Norman Mailer, who shares some of his thoughts on boxing history (while Howard, Grazer and writer Cliff Hollingsworth listen) during this featurette, which also offers some archive fight footage of Braddock. Finally, Jim Braddock: "The Friends and Family Behind the Legend" is an 11-minute piece has members of Braddock's family discussing his legacy, and talking about having Braddock portrayed in the film. Finally, theres also a Kodak promo.
The Collector's Edition set contains a bonus disc that opens with another 15 minutes of deleted scenes. Once again, I thought the majority of this footage was more substancial and interesting than what's usually found in the deleted scenes sections of many DVDs. Although not all of the scenes work, there's definitely some very good material available here.
"Russell Crowe's Journey: Becoming Jim Braddock" is a 28-minute documentary that goes to Crowe's home outside Sydney in order to follow the actor - joined by legendary trainer Angelo Dundee, fight choreographer Nick Powell and others - as he trains for the role. However, as Crowe discusses, despite choreography and training, the actors have to also rely on instinct and be prepared for split-second decisions. We also see Crowe go through an surgery after an injury and have to work his way through therapy, while he and everyone involved with the film worry whether or when he'll be able to continue with the production. Overall, this is an entertaining, engaging behind-the-scenes piece.
"Lights...Camera...Action: The Fight From Every Angle" is a 21-minute documentary that has Howard and others discussing how the fights in the film were choreographed and shot. "Human Face of the Depression" is a 6-minute piece has Howard discussing the early short film that he did on the depression and more information about the time period. "Sound of the Bell" is a very brief look at composer Thomas Newman going about creating his score for the film.
“Pre-Fight Preparations” is a 4-part (approximately 25 minutes total) documentary that takes a detailed look at the creation of the screenplay and the development of the film, creating the look of the film (production design, attempting to be historically accurate) and the fight audiences, as well as more details about Crowe's preparation for the role.
Finally, the last bonus (aside from a photo gallery) is a little over 30 minutes of footage from the fight between James Braddock and Max Baer, which is a very nice bonus to have included.
Final Thoughts: With fantastic performances from Crowe and Giamatti (along with a few fine supporting efforts), "Cinderella Man" stood out as one of the finest films I've seen this year, and certainly a very pleasant surprise. The film is recommended - fans who saw the film in theaters may want to shop around for the best price on the Collector's Edition and those fans who don't care about supplements or those who haven't seen the film yet may want to consider the regular edition (which still has quite a few extras.)
Film Grade
The Film A-
DVD Grades
Video 91/A
Audio: 88/B
Extras: 85/B, Collector's: 90/A-
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