Cinderella Man!
Jul. 4th, 2005 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperMy word, that Russell Crowe fella can act.
Just got back from spending a pleasant afternoon with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mamishka, in which we finally got to see Cinderella Man. We both had an immensely satisfying time, and commented as much to one another as the credits were rolling. It's a damn crying shame that this film is not doing so well, because it really is a good movie and deserves more success than it's getting. It's not the high-action, big-explosion, flash-bang-boom sort of summer movie most people would go to see--but don't let that stop you. Go see it. And let this plucky underdog of a movie come out on top.
High points: Paul Giamatti as Joe Gould, Jim Braddock's trainer--he had some of the best lines in the movie. I especially liked the scene where Jim got riled at him for calling his opponent a bum, and Joe's drawled deadpan reply (the exact words of which I am not remembering--but it was to the effect of 'let me rephrase; he's a gentleman whose ass you should gently kick, unless it will offend your overly delicate sensibilities'. Hee. I also liked the exchange between Jim and Joe later when Joe gets him his first new fight: "For two hundred and fifty dollars I'd fight your wife! And your grandmother!" "Teeth in or teeth out?"
I was very charmed by the shots of Jim being all dad-like to his three small children, especially letting his little girl punch his upraised palm, and telling her she had a better jab than her daddy.
The parts where Jim and Mae had to face not being able to keep their kids warm--and the threat of having to send them away--really tugged at me. I faced stuff like that in my childhood, so it really rang rather true with me. And seeing Jim have to swallow his pride and go beg all his former boxing cronies for help was deeply poignant. It added a great deal of impact to the lines later where the reporters are asking Jim about his comeback:
Jim: Now I know what I'm fighting for.
Reporter: What's that, Jim?
Jim: Milk.
I totally went "awwww" at all the folks gathering together in the church to pray for Jim's success and listen to the fight--and the kids hiding on the basement stairs to listen to the fight when their mother had tried to tell her sister to not let them.
And the fight scenes... very gripping. Very physical. Meems and I both flinched with every blow delivered. I especially winced at the ones Mr. Crowe took to the head, remembering having read about Russell having taken quite the beating training for this flick. And the fight where Jim takes the blow to the ribs... ow. Ow ow ow ow.
While the plot has no real surprises in it, there were parts where the story could have taken a predictable path and didn't. And that pleased me. One part was in the final clinch where Mae freaks out at Jim about the prospect of his getting killed by Baer in the ring; I was almost expecting her to tell him to not fight or she'd leave him, and yet, all she did was ask him to find a way out. I was also half-expecting, given Baer's portrayal, that he would be more of an asshole about losing than he was, and that didn't happen either. Mimi wisely pointed out that the movie did need to try to stay true to the events that actually happened, which of course makes total sense--but it was nice to see things play out that way. A lesser movie might have tried to bend the actual events more to make for increased "drama". I'm really glad this one didn't.
All in all... very satisfying indeed.
Just got back from spending a pleasant afternoon with
mamishka, in which we finally got to see Cinderella Man. We both had an immensely satisfying time, and commented as much to one another as the credits were rolling. It's a damn crying shame that this film is not doing so well, because it really is a good movie and deserves more success than it's getting. It's not the high-action, big-explosion, flash-bang-boom sort of summer movie most people would go to see--but don't let that stop you. Go see it. And let this plucky underdog of a movie come out on top.High points: Paul Giamatti as Joe Gould, Jim Braddock's trainer--he had some of the best lines in the movie. I especially liked the scene where Jim got riled at him for calling his opponent a bum, and Joe's drawled deadpan reply (the exact words of which I am not remembering--but it was to the effect of 'let me rephrase; he's a gentleman whose ass you should gently kick, unless it will offend your overly delicate sensibilities'. Hee. I also liked the exchange between Jim and Joe later when Joe gets him his first new fight: "For two hundred and fifty dollars I'd fight your wife! And your grandmother!" "Teeth in or teeth out?"
I was very charmed by the shots of Jim being all dad-like to his three small children, especially letting his little girl punch his upraised palm, and telling her she had a better jab than her daddy.
The parts where Jim and Mae had to face not being able to keep their kids warm--and the threat of having to send them away--really tugged at me. I faced stuff like that in my childhood, so it really rang rather true with me. And seeing Jim have to swallow his pride and go beg all his former boxing cronies for help was deeply poignant. It added a great deal of impact to the lines later where the reporters are asking Jim about his comeback:
Jim: Now I know what I'm fighting for.
Reporter: What's that, Jim?
Jim: Milk.
I totally went "awwww" at all the folks gathering together in the church to pray for Jim's success and listen to the fight--and the kids hiding on the basement stairs to listen to the fight when their mother had tried to tell her sister to not let them.
And the fight scenes... very gripping. Very physical. Meems and I both flinched with every blow delivered. I especially winced at the ones Mr. Crowe took to the head, remembering having read about Russell having taken quite the beating training for this flick. And the fight where Jim takes the blow to the ribs... ow. Ow ow ow ow.
While the plot has no real surprises in it, there were parts where the story could have taken a predictable path and didn't. And that pleased me. One part was in the final clinch where Mae freaks out at Jim about the prospect of his getting killed by Baer in the ring; I was almost expecting her to tell him to not fight or she'd leave him, and yet, all she did was ask him to find a way out. I was also half-expecting, given Baer's portrayal, that he would be more of an asshole about losing than he was, and that didn't happen either. Mimi wisely pointed out that the movie did need to try to stay true to the events that actually happened, which of course makes total sense--but it was nice to see things play out that way. A lesser movie might have tried to bend the actual events more to make for increased "drama". I'm really glad this one didn't.
All in all... very satisfying indeed.
