Cinderella Man (2005)
Directed by Ron Howard
The true story of boxer Jim Braddock who, following his retirement in the 1930s, makes a surprise comeback in order to lift his family out of poverty.
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What critics compared Cinderella Man to
Because this is yet another riches-to-rags sports redemption story in the vein of “Cinderella Man.” Billy wins that opening bout, but barely, retaining his light middleweight title.
Beside it, Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man is nuanced, Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull restrained.
Various iterations have resulted in many a "Rocky," two versions of "The Champ" and 2005's "Cinderella Man," to name just a few enjoyable examples.
Rocky III's rebuilding-the-champ drama meets Cinderella Man's Daddy struggles, with a dash of The Fighter's neighborhood grit and some Eminem on the soundtrack for the beefcake training montage.
Not as smart as “The Fighter” and not as achingly epic as “Cinderella Man,” “Southpaw” comes through as a light heavyweight on its own terms.
Written by Kurt Sutter ( Sons of Anarchy ) and directed by Antoine Fuqua ( Training Day ), Southpaw has some stiff competition in the boxing-film subgenre: Rocky , Raging Bull , Million Dollar Baby , The Fighter , Cinderella Man , Requiem for a Heavyweight (and coming in the near future are Bleed for This, Creed , and Hands of Stone).
Sixty-five years after John Ford’s wrenching The Grapes of Wrath, Hollywood seems to have concluded that the Great Depression was, in fact, a pretty great time to be alive.
They’re like Brando’s Terry Malloy from On the Waterfront vs. Russell Crowe’s Jimmy Braddock from Cinderella Man.
With a recession still upon us, it's a nice rags-to-riches, real-life tale - this year's "Cinderella Man," you could say - and brings with it a welcome message of hope.
So in that sense, Rocky, The Wrestler, Fat City, Cinderella Man, Requiem for a Heavyweight, and even a Mike Tyson documentary are all more or less the same.
The film is called "The Fighter" but it's too bad there already was a "Cinderella Man" because that title would have worked better.
The first is Michael Mann's Ali (2001), featuring Will Smith as Muhammad Ali, the other Ron Howard's Cinderella Man (2005), starring Russell Crowe as the Depression-era fighter James Braddock.
Not everything is clear or easy in this movie, and it's a good deal deeper and thornier than The Hurricane, Ali, or Cinderella Man, even if it's less masterful than Raging Bull.
Everything else is Cinderella Man with crack pipes.
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Rachel, who sports dark eye makeup and a ragged black bob, reflects in her purple and black bedroom before finding Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt, "Cinderella Man") in a squeal of girlish welcome that is not extended by Rachel's best friend Emma (Demme family friend and filmmaker Anisa George) who obviously resents Kym's presence (and has the face of a pinched WASP who smells something bad).
When revelations are finally uncovered and the viewer is given the full picture of what has happened in this family's life to damage them so badly, the results are devastating, performed to perfection from Rosemarie DeWitt (2005's " Cinderella Man "), as wearied sister Rachel; Bill Irwin (2007's " Across the Universe "), heartbreakingly trying in vain to keep peace with everyone while unraveling himself as father Paul; and a very welcome, rarely seen anymore Debra Winger, a cage of silent grief and resentment as mother Abby.
Howard isn’t the most experimental filmmaker in the world, but with films like “Cinderella Man” and 2013’s overlooked “Rush,” it’s evident that, the more inspired he is, the more he’ll push himself beyond his generally conventional methods.
We all know Howard is a good and sometimes excellent director (he helmed the likes of "Apollo 13," "Cinderella Man" and "A Beautiful Mind") and that Hanks is an excellent actor (with five Oscar nominations and wins for "Philadelphia" and "Forrest Gump").
Together they’ve made Splash and Apollo 13; separately their credits include Cinderella Man, The Paper, Saving Private Ryan, Captain Phillips and so many others.
He finally swallows his pride to work at the coal mines despite not having the right clothes to wear for the job (echoes here of Russell Crowe’s Jim Braddock during the Great Depression from Cinderella Man).
To tell this gripping tale, the film's crew – led by cinematographer Salvatore Totino (Cinderella Man, The DaVinci Code) – dragged IMAX cameras onto Everest, capturing breathtaking images from both ground and air.
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The cinematography by Salvatore Totino (2005's " Cinderella Man ") is slick and atmospheric, taking full advantage of the gorgeous foreign locations and seamlessly matching them up with the material shot by necessity on soundstages.
It might have been a hit, but Ron Howard’s movie of Dan Brown’s Catholic-symbolist potboiler The Da Vinci Code stank to heaven: Howard did it for the money and was clearly too dispirited after the flop of Cinderella Man to fake the requisite conviction.
The director is working with Akiva Goldsman, one of Hollywood's highest-paid and least-talented screenwriters, also responsible for Howard's phenomenally overrated A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man as well as The Da Vinci Code .
Some prefer "The Fighter" versus "Million Dollar Baby" or "Cinderella Man."