NO, HE DOESN'T SAY "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?" Cinderella Man is by no means a bad movie. Like most of Ron Howard's movies, it's completely competently made, with a minimum of flair. In fact, Howard's attempts to “flair up” the movie by quick intercuts of flashback material during the fight sequences are the weakest part of the movie. That said, it's also a movie where several of the performances wind up being better than the movie.
Both Crowe and Giamatti, as they pretty much invariably do, deliver fine performances, mixing rage, indignation, and anger that help to temper the film's general sentimentality. Zellweger fares less well, though that's largely a function of her generally underwritten part. The movie's also a little long. In fact, the entire subplot involving Braddock's friend who becomes a fiery labor organizer feels out of place, either needing to be cut out entirely or developed more so as to draw a more effective contrast with Braddock's own story. Right now, it just kind of hangs out there.
So is it an Oscar frontrunner? For the moment, yeah, at least for Crowe, Giamatti (who I think has a very good chance at winning this year), and Thomas Newman's score.I doubt it'll hold up, as it's a weaker boxing movie than Million Dollar Baby was and a weaker inspirational movie about a Depression-era underdog than Seabiscuit.
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