Cinderella Man

When Ron Howard makes a movie, he makes them emotional, some even say he manipulates his audience the way he makes us cry and laugh whenever he wants. Those who say that say it as if it's something negative when Howard does that, but I say it's great, and when the final result is something as brilliant as Cinderella Man, I applaud him, and the I give him the Oscar.

The man knows how to make movies, and he certainly knows how to cast them, so is no surprise that Russell Crowe is at the lead, specially since their latest collaboration was A Beautiful Mind, which robbed the Best Pic Oscar from The Fellowship of the Ring but got robbed the leading actor Oscar for Russell courtesy of Denzel Washington back in 2002.
There's more Oscar in this movie as past winner Renee Zellweger and twice robbed Paul Giamatti costar. Oscar-less Paddy Considine, Craig Bierko, Bruce McGill and even Ron's brother Clint Howard (in a very small role) round the cast.

Written by (also Oscar winner) Akiva Goldsman and Cliff Hollingsworth, this is the story of Jim Braddock, the heavyweight champion of the world up until the Depression era is the US, when he went downhill from living in a great house and very happy with his wife Mae and their 3 kids, to living without food or electricity in a crappy apartment, still with his loving wife and kids, and at times happy, specially when he can get picked to work at the docks and earn some (though not enough) money. He can't box anymore because his license was revoked after a hand injury that made for some very poor boxing that nobody wanted to see.
One day his luck changes when his trainer/manager Joe Gould gets him a last minute fight, and with no training and no food in his stomach, Jim wins the fight out of nowhere. He now knows what he's fighting for he says, "food". And so he keeps winning, and it all ends in a final showdown at the Madison Square Garden between Braddock and current heavyweight champ (and a man who has killed two boxers in the ring) Max Baer, with the entire country filling churches, bars, and whatever places they could find with a radio so they could listen to the fight and pray and cheer for Jim.

Russell Crowe is so good that his performance here is hard to rate. He's not a loud warrior leading a battalion or a man with a troubled mind like in his previous movies when he blew us away with his acting. He's not Russell Crowe acting either, here he's Jim Braddock, a humble family man who loves his wife and children and working hard for the in the country he loves and believes in. And there is no one scene that can be shown come Awards season as an example of his performance, because he's perfect the entire movie.
Then Renee Zellweger, who I've grown to dislike for some reason, but she's so good here. Her performance as Jim's wife Mae is so Oscar worthy that I could give it to her right now. She's the heart of the movie, helped in part to the screenplay centering her in pretty much all the emotional scenes of the story, even in some when not even Russell is on screen, but that work to let the other actors like Paul Giamatti do their thing. And I was hoping this would be Giamatti's year to get the Oscar, even if it's a supporting one, and he's sure to get a nod, but compared to another truly great supporting performance I've seen this year already (that of Matt Dillon in Crash), I fear Paul came up just a little bit short. Don't get me wrong, his performance is excellent as Joe Gould, but I felt that he was missing the big scene that would have made it perfect.
Paddy Considine gives a great performance too as Mike, Jim's friend from the docks, as well as Bruce McGill who plays boxing commissioner Jimmy Johnston. Finally Craig Bierko as Max Baer is the scene stealer (in his few) with a ferocity and intensity in the boxing ring that made me fear him even from the other side of the screen.

Not my favorite movie of the year, but still a perfect movie with perfect performances, writing and direction, and even the score by Thomas Newman is excellent. Yes, it's an Oscar grabber, but so what, just because the summer is just starting doesn't mean that great movies can't be released now and if they are they must be forgotten by December. I certainly hope not, the Academy should learn from last time (Eternal Sunshine not up for Best Picture? Please!) and remember Cinderella Man and everybody who was part of it, because those awards will be coming their way.