Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with an early review of Ron Howard's CINDERELLA MAN. Now this review isn't all too positive, but it's also not all too negative either. To me that seems to be the danger with having a writer like Akiva Goldsman. He can write some decent stuff like A TIME TO KILL, but he can also go over the hump and shoot out turds like LOST IN SPACE and BATMAN & ROBIN. I'd say most of his stuff is in a middle ground... not too bad, but not too great either... THE CLIENT, I ROBOT, A BEAUTIFUL MIND, etc. I'm pulling for CINDERELLA MAN to work as I like most involved. For a look at what this below reviewer thought worked and didn't work, give a read below. He goes into spoilers towards the end, but I'll make sure to alert ya' in red before then!
Harry!
All my life I've wanted to write you with some sort of scoop. At last the day has come. I was privy to a special-circumstance preview screening of "Cinderella Man" If I divulged more particulars, people would be set upon with thumb-screws by the powers that be... but trust me on this - it's the real deal.
We were told off the top that this was in fact the FINAL CUT of the film. Well, there's still some time till release... I mean, who's to say someone doesn't change their mind a bit? Anyway, the film cut we saw was fully polished - ie. complete film with all scenes, all final vfx, sound, music, titles...
It's l..o..n..g...... it's about 140 min.
I won't waste your time (nor readers') with plot details. Yes, yes, our boy Russ plays Jim Braddock, Depression era boxer who beats Max Baer for world title circa 1933...
In a nutshell:
Good things about this movie:
*Renee
*Giamatti
*cinematography
*production design
Bad things about this movie:
*Crowe
*screenplay
*Ron Howard and Co.
*Craig Bierko
I'll now elaborate a bit:
Russ is just phoning this one in. No Maximus here. No Beautiful Mind stuff. No "Horatio Hornblower" - he's gone back to basics on this one. And by that, I mean "Virtuosity." While he looks in semi-decent shape, you can spot the body double in a number of takes - he's actually the guy playing one of the boxers killed by Baer in a flashback sequence who is noted to be similar to Braddock... okay, so let's have the body double play that part... makes sense... I think to sum it up, Braddock doesn't really have an "edge" that makes you want to root for him. At one point, he points out to the press that he's fighting for "milk." Well, that's about as edgy as it gets, folks. The character shows a lot of restraint. A LOT.
Renee surprised me big-time. You think you're going to get that mousey waif we've seen her do countless times or maybe the zany Cold Mountain hick chick with lots of moxie. Well, this is better than Cold Mountain, folks - you don't recognize her at all - Meryl Streep, eat your heart out! Believe it or not, Renee kept me watching. What does that say about this movie?
Giamatti - well, he's fighting the urge to do a "Burgess Meredith"... he's good and he really holds his own to Crowe - he might get the ol' "compensation" nod by the Academy in recognition of being slighted for Sideways...
This is paint by numbers Ron Howard stuff. He's trying hard to do a "Frank Capra" I think. Actually, thinking of Russ trying to do a "Jimmy Stewart" is a good way to describe it... He's so pure of heart, so wholesome... so is Renee... so is Paul, who sells off all his furniture to happily give Russ an advance so he can train properly... you get the drift, I hope...
Bottom line: while it is in fact the team behind "Beautiful Mind," more importantly, it's the team that brought you "The Missing."
The cinematography went a long way working hand-in-hand with the production design to really sell you on the idea that you're watching events unfold in 1933 New Jersey. The sets are elaborate and you really think you're watching something actually filmed in that period - sort of like Angela's Ashes or Chariots of Fire - you buy it. The "look" is a bit desaturated, lots of Depression-era earth tones (see trailer) and almost like they picked an "older" filmstock type from the '70's to help give it a bit of that 1930's texture/grain...
You'd think since Akiva Goldsman et al. were penning this, it would be shoe-in. Trouble is, it's not. There's too much in the first half confined to the Braddock homestead, with too many repeated scenes of Russ holding Renee's hands and saying how they'll "get through this" and shedding some tears and looking at each other wondering how the heck they're going to get through this. Okay. We get the point after the first one. 'Nuff already. There's a tiny subplot involving Braddock's dock chum Mike but it's so underdeveloped and so barely delved in to...
Not enough time is spent showing Braddock living the regimine he'd have to follow to get in shape for Baer a la Million Dollar Baby... In fact, at one point, Giamatti asks his "padewan" how he managed to beat an opponent by going south-paw. Russ explains that back in the day when his right hand was mush, he took the job at the docks and learned to compensate having been forced to do everything with his left... well, it's a real good thing he TOLD us...
Craig Bierko, as much as he rocked in "Thirteenth Floor" is simply ridiculous as Max Baer. They keep trying to emphasize during the build-up that Baer killed two fighters in the ring. He's a chauvinist pig. Renee is afraid of him. But never, ever, ever do you for a second think that Russ has any doubts about the outcome - and therein lies perhaps the film's biggest weakness - you know they're trying to create a sense of tension: but you just don't buy it... Max Baer trying to look "tuff" is actually pretty funny. Kinda looks like one of the Marx Bros. The penultimate fight with Lasky was actually more suspenseful and dire... you just know Russ is gonna whallop Bierko...
Spoiler alert:
there's no knock-out punch at the end - Braddock ends up by winning by scorecard decision. The fact that he didn't get k.o.'d by Baer in Round 1 and actually went the distance is the "victory." Well, I guess that's the thing about doing a biopic...
The sappy attempt at sentimentalism really got to me. The final scenes when the Baer fight draws to a close really overdid this - the judges take extra time to come to their decision and that gives Howard time to recap all the "locations" that have tuned in to catch the big fight. Russ's family is listening to a radio at home. A bunch of parishioners have gathered in church to listen as well. Of course, the pub where Russ hangs out is filled to the rafters with tailgaters ordering drinks by the fistful, catching the big game on the 1930's equivalent to a big screen t.v. When the decision is FINALLY announced, all the locations go ballistic - picture the final scene in Return of the Jedi when the fireworks go off all over the Galaxy after the Empire is defeated and you'll catch my drift...
All in all, I don't get why this movie is being released now in the summer during Blockbuster season. It's slow and drab - Dr. Zhivago is a romantic comedy compared to this. It's really a late fall or Christmas kind of movie.
Howard employs some interesting devices at key moments: a Fincher-esque x-ray pov of Braddock's ribs getting cracked during the final slugfest and also when Russ is watching a newsreel of Baer killing those fighters, he steps close to the screen and it's like he can see Baer as if he was actually right there - Baer looks into the camera in slow-motion menace that I guess is intended to spook us and make us think he's dangerous...
Okay Harry, it's late - I wanted to get this to you while it was still "fresh."
All the best - great work!
