Crowebiscuit: The Cinderella Man Sneak Preview

I avoided reading any reviews or articles on Cinderella Man until I could see it myself, but I couldn't help peeking at an online trailer. "He laughs, he cries, he punches the hell out of people wearing nothing but trunks. He's Crowebiscuit!" The trailer appealed to many of my weaknesses. But it also told me exactly what I was in for. So now that I've seen the full sneak preview, I can't say I'm disappointed.

The good news: Cinderella Man was everything that I expected.
The bad news: Cinderella Man was everything that I expected.

A simple movie movie can be a great experience. This one was just decent. I don't mind knowing where a movie is taking me, but I don't necessarily want to know how we're going to get there.

My disbelief hasn't been weightless for years. It needs a boost. It doesn't have to be anything radical. During Cinderella Man, the sparkle in Russell Crowe's eyes, his boyish grin, and even his teary wounded pride still suspended it, but then the predictable story knocked it back down. I'm too aware of this mythology for it to work automatically. A Beautiful Mind had more smaltz, but also more complexity. Perhaps that's why it worked better for me than Cinderella Man.

Cinderella Man wanted to be historic yet kind of apolitical at the same time, which couldn't help but result in a few muddled scenes about "agitators." Still, for a such a simple story, there were only a couple of moments of total high fructose corn syrup. And some of them were actually sweet and not cloying.

All of the performances were good. Paul Giamatti and Russell Crowe had great chemistry. Paddy Considine added a needed edge. The kids were cute. Renee Zellweger was spunky in spite of being saddled with the corniest lines. (I wonder why Ms. Zellweger's British accent sounded better than her New Jersey accent, and Mr. Crowe's New Jersey accent sounded better than his British accent--at least to my Midwestern ears).

The photography was surprisingly and appropriately gritty (although it was a fine grit). The fight scenes fascinated me since I know nothing about boxing and it's hard not to respond to close ups of hand-to-hand violence. The audience laughed, cheered, and clapped. I even let out an "ooo" during one of the wide shots of skyline that no longer exists. A couple of people applauded at the end.

Cinderella Man is a decent movie about a decent guy. So maybe the spell didn't quite work on me. Cinderella Man could do very well.