Paul Giamatti (Sideways) is the star of this picture's cast, playing Braddock's manager and friend Joe Gould. Giamatti once again proves his talent and skills as an actor. This is the second performance I've seen this year, which could warrant an Academy Award® nomination for supporting actor. He and Crowe made an awesome on screen pair.

Crowe was also great, but it was no surprise to me. After seeing him in "A Beautiful Mind," there's very few roles like this I would think he COULDN'T do.

Renee Zellweger did the status quo. Her character was barely functional to the story. Her pouty lips and squinting is starting to get on my nerves, and that stupid face she always makes hides anything her character may be thinking. She needs some refresher training I think, maybe.

Director Ron Howard (Beautiful Mind, Far and Away) had some good choices during the fighting sequences, as well as his vision of depicting the U.S. depression of the 1930's.

However, he and cinematographer Salvatore Totino (The Missing, Any Given Sunday) create the look of Braddock's home life with a series of horribly low budget images. Maybe the low budget look was meant to resemble the poverty of Braddock's low time, but I didn't feel it was consistent enough for the audience to connect.

What I love most about this picture, and what makes it unique is the motivation of Braddock's comeback. He was simply fighting for the money to take care of his family. He didn't quite care to become a top contender and fight champion Max Baer, played by Craig Bierko (The Thirteenth Floor). He just wanted to keep fighting whatever the boxing commission would allow him to, continuing to bring cash into his broken home.

Overall, if you like movies like "Rudy," "Seabiscuit" and "Miracle," then "Cinderella Man" should be a big enjoyment for you. I found myself throwing punches in the air during the final 15 round slugfest, routing for Braddock, caught up in the excitement of the climax. The picture has its annoyances, but remains very strong in my book. This is one of the best pictures released so far this year, as of June 3, 2005. I hope you give it a chance and see it.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?

I found this movie to be quite entertaining and enjoyable. Russell Crowe does another great job in a movie that almost seemed to be written for him. I hope this movie is remembered at Academy Award time if not for anything other than the role that Paul Giamatti puts together.

The writing for this movie was very good. Cliff Hollingsworth wrote a script that gave us a boxer that was very believable and did not make him seem super human. Granted he did have a real life person too create this character from, but it is very easy to make boxing characters larger than life, say for example Rocky Balboa, or make the characters completely unbelievable, like Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby. I also liked how he wrote a character that was not trying to hide the fact that he was boxing for money, to support his family, but still he was not fighting to be the best or be a name, but for greed; indeed sometimes greed is good.

Ron Howard's direction was noteworthy in that I enjoyed the camera angles that gave you the look as if you were the boxer getting hit or doing the hitting. This worked wonderfully in the final fight with Max Baer. I did think that the home life scenes were a little too grainy or dirty, even though I am sure that is what it was like in a dingy basement apartment during the depression, but sometimes it was distracting.

Speaking of distracting, what was up with Renee Zellweger(Cold Mountain.) Every time she had to deliver an important line she would squish her lips and squeeze her eyes together and speak as if she was out of breath. Does she need glasses? Does she need a laxative? Did she have a lot of pent up sexual tension because Kenny Chesney didn't want to have sex until their wedding night? I don't know but I hope she solves the problem before her next movie.

Paul Giamatti (Sideways) keeps making me laugh and wanting to see more. He jumps into a great character, Braddock's manager Joe Gould, and runs with it. I really like how he adds subtleness to dramatic scenes. The best examples are when he shows Mrs. Braddock into his apartment after she has been screaming outside his door that he is taking advantage of Jim just to make more money only to discover that Joe has sold all of the furniture so he could help Jim pay the bills while he trains. Giamatti during that entire scene does a great job of portraying a proud man who has bet his life on Jim Braddock and show Braddock's wife how committed he his to him. Giamatti dances circles around Zellweger.

Crowe gave another solid performance as Jim Braddock. He has certainly become one of the better actors today and depending on what comes out in the future might get another Academy Award nomination.

Go ahead and see Cinderella Man and enjoy what a good character movie is and what Million Dollar Baby is not.