Cinderella Man: A Movie Review

Cinderella Man (starring Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger) has just been released on DVD this week, and the hubby and I got to watch it last night.

It's a biopic (meaning, a biographical film with an epic length) about James J. Ballock, who was a boxer that was a source inspiration to American society during the depression.

It's a nice story, and as I watched the movie I realized that although I wanted to like it very much, and even felt that I should like it very much, the movie fell a little "flat" for our tastes. It's slow, it's lacking a compelling musical score, and even the meat of the story doesn't really come across as all that exciting. Due to the fact that the movie is so long, it's not surprising that there is so little character development for Zellweger's character, but it left me feeling like it was a waste of her talent to be in that role. Any lesser actress could have done it (and possibly been less annoying with a New Jersey accent).

Ron Howard's films are usually worth seeing, and I think with Cinderella Man he's got a story worth telling. Sadly, it seemed to miss the mark this time.