2008 Woodie Awards
Midnight Proves Triumphant for Braddock
Ari Fridman
Issue date: 8/31/05 Section: Arts & Culture
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As perhaps the modern era's most diverse male actor, next to Tom Hanks and Sean Penn, Russell Crowe masters yet another role in Cinderella Man, Ron Howard's depression-era story of the life of James J. Braddock, a boxer whose family falls on hard times as Braddock's body breaks down and prevents him from earning his once prosperous living in the ring. While Cinderella Man revolves around the boxing ring, it also focuses on the decrepit tenement in which Braddock, his wife (Renee Zellweger), and their three children struggle to survive the depression years amid Braddock's on-again, off-again employment at docks in Weehawken, NJ.
Eventually, Braddock must literally beg for money from Madison Square Garden executives, his former employers and promoters, in order to pay his way from Jersey to Brooklyn where Zellweger, unable to feed the children or keep them warm, has sent the children to live with a sister. Braddock, portrayed as the consummate family man throughout the film, brings the children home. And just as quickly, his luck changes. His former manager (Paul Giamatti) gets him a fight as a heavyweight contender, a bout he wins, thanks in no small part to a healed right hand that powers his improbable comeback.
Now resurgent after two successful bouts, Braddock finds that the heavyweight championship goes through a towering, imposing mountain, Max Baer, who has already killed two unworthy opponents in the ring. While those around him fear for his life, Braddock will not relent, refusing even his wife's impassioned pleas to back out of the fight. Paradoxically, it is Braddock's stubborn refusal to accept the overmatched odds against him which contrasts so sharply with his simultaneous devotion to his struggling family. The explanation we receive: Braddock cannot pass up on the opportunity to face death in the eye, as at least in this case he can fight on his own terms, something he cannot do in the battle against the depression. Of course, at the same time, Braddock hardly hides his ambition to achieve the glory he once thought was no longer possible.
Eventually, Braddock must literally beg for money from Madison Square Garden executives, his former employers and promoters, in order to pay his way from Jersey to Brooklyn where Zellweger, unable to feed the children or keep them warm, has sent the children to live with a sister. Braddock, portrayed as the consummate family man throughout the film, brings the children home. And just as quickly, his luck changes. His former manager (Paul Giamatti) gets him a fight as a heavyweight contender, a bout he wins, thanks in no small part to a healed right hand that powers his improbable comeback.
Now resurgent after two successful bouts, Braddock finds that the heavyweight championship goes through a towering, imposing mountain, Max Baer, who has already killed two unworthy opponents in the ring. While those around him fear for his life, Braddock will not relent, refusing even his wife's impassioned pleas to back out of the fight. Paradoxically, it is Braddock's stubborn refusal to accept the overmatched odds against him which contrasts so sharply with his simultaneous devotion to his struggling family. The explanation we receive: Braddock cannot pass up on the opportunity to face death in the eye, as at least in this case he can fight on his own terms, something he cannot do in the battle against the depression. Of course, at the same time, Braddock hardly hides his ambition to achieve the glory he once thought was no longer possible.