..Gary
Dretzka
..Noah
Forrest
..Leonard
Klady
..R.J.
Matson
..David
Poland
..Douglas
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
..Michael
Wilmington
..DVD Review ..MCN Review
Cinderella Man
There is a scene in Ron Howard's Cinderella Man, a true story about Depression Era boxer James Braddock, where Braddock's wife, played by René Zellweger, is walking on a sidewalk with her daughter and passes a man shoveling snow, the set's design and dressing intended to impart the wintry atmosphere of the Depression, both physically and spiritually. The thing is, the guy is picking at the snow the way a child would eat peas, and the moment is so phony it belies the period evocation Howard wants to create. There are other, less obvious moments during the film where the same shortcomings occur, and while they don't negate the film's inherent entertainment (the final fight lasts over 20 minutes), they do give it an artificial air, undercutting the movie's primary hook, that the story's miraculous occurrences are genuine. Braddock came close to the championship early in his career, but broke his hand and was washed up as a fighter at the height of the Depression. He hid the break to get a job as a dockworker and in doing so, he built up his other hand and arm. When he returned to the ring, he unknowingly had more power and talent than when he'd left. It's a great story. Martin Scorsese has probably poisoned boxing movies forever with the revelation that most boxers are violent, pig-headed lugs, but Braddock was genuinely good-natured and emotionally stable. As a result, however, Howard may have replicated the family scenes as accurately as if he'd found film from a camera hidden in the walls of the original Braddock apartment, and yet the movie can't shake the sense that the scenes away from the boxing ring are somehow false or artificial, because everyone is so nice. But the fights are thrilling—most viewers will duck and bob right along with the fighters—and the film is as honorable in its intentions as it is rousing in its dramatic arc. As Braddock, Russell Crowe doesn't have a thick neck, but with the Depression cutting into his character's nutrient intake, his build is believable enough to get by, and he carries the movie effectively. Paul Giamatti plays his manager, without the character actor quirks one normally expects in such a role.
Universal has released Cinderella Man as a Widescreen title (22119, $30) on a single, two-sided platter. The film appears on one side with three commentary tracks. The letterboxing has an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The Depression Era hues are subdued but stable. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound has a workable dimensionality. The 145-minute program has an alternate French audio track in 5.1 Dolby, an audio track that describes the action for those who can't see the picture (and is useful for everyone during the height of the boxing action), and optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Howard supplies one commentary track. He talks about being so fascinated by the Depression that he actually made documentary about it when he was in high school, and he speaks about the performers, the locations, the script and what he knows about the real Braddock. It is a reasonably thorough and informative talk. "One of the things that I really wanted to understand was the label that they always give this sport, ‘the sweet science.' You start talking to boxers and they begin relaying things in terms of patterns, openings, flashes of opportunity. I wanted to try and understand what's going on in a fighter's mind, what does he see, so every once in a while, I put in a little flashback, and gave you a little sense of what it was Braddock was looking for, what it was he was seeing, how he was winning and losing the fights as we went along." The original screenwriter, Cliff Hollingsworth, also supplies a rewarding talk on a separate track, identifying what he contributed to the script and what was added or changed by others, and also meticulously identifying what incidents in the film are true and what are ‘dramatic license.' On the third track, screenwriter Akiva Goldsman gives a talk as well, but it is of less value. There are long gaps, including every fight sequence, and he has very little to say except to point out a narrative strategy here and there.
The flipside offers a decent 14-minute production documentary, another 23-minute piece about the characters and the cast, a 7-minute interview with boxing advisor Angelo Dundee (he would get mad at the actors when they'd let their guards down in the ring, even when a shot called for it), an excellent 9-minute segment with Howard and Norman Mailer analyzing newsreel footage of Braddock's championship fight, a nice 11-minute profile of Braddock and his family, and 21 minutes of sensibly trimmed deleted scenes with an optional commentary from Howard.
February 15, 2006
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