Review: Cinderella Man (2005)

I downloaded this film onto my iPad to watch if I was bored in the airport on the way to some other far flung place and thank god I did as I ended up on an 11 hour journey to get home (which should have taken 4 hours) so I had plenty of time to watch everything I had downloaded.

This film is the true story of James J Braddock a boxer during the Great Depression in 1930's America who loses everything.  Him and his family struggle after he gets ditched from boxing and they have to fight to survive and provide for their children.  Years later, Braddock gets the opportunity to box again and the rest they say is history...

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this film, the cover looked depressing as did the description, but it just goes to show you can't judge a book by it's cover.  This film was amazing, loved every minute of it and I was completely gripped from beginning to end.  I spent 20 minutes of the film sobbing, on a train in Germany no less so maybe it wasn't SFT after all. I have to be honest, I've never even heard of this film, and when I saw the title Cinderella Man in the draft section of our blog, I actually thought it was going to be a cheesy Disney film! I now realise I was thinking of A Cinderella Story...sorry.

The film seemed quite slow but that didn't take away from the story at all.  Russell Crowe was brilliant at the down ad out boxer trying desperately to avoid having to send his children away and the fact that it's based on a true story makes it that much more poignant.  Your heart breaks where their heart breaks and you feel the pure joy whenever something happens to him and his wife, played by Renee Zellweger (who possible wears too much make up for someone with starving kids in the height of the depression!).  Giamatti is perfect in the role of Braddocks trainer, Joe Gould who looks on with the perfect amount of sadness when it all goes wrong and himself gives everything up in his belief of Braddock.

A definite must-see even if you don't think it's for you, give it a try anyway, you might be surprised. I'm going to take you up on that one!