Cinderella Man

Ron Howard's Cinderella Man is, to use a cliche, one of those films they don't make anymore. The story of boxer James J. Braddock (Russell Crowe) could easily have been picked up fifty years ago by a director like Frank Capra. Howard has pulled back and made the film with less realism and grit than he could have, but Braddock's story is what's important and Howard delivers it well. Sure, not all of the scenes work – a couple of the scenes with Renee Zellweger are sappy, and some of the fight banter is contrived, but I can overlook that stuff. Braddock comes across as a good guy (even if Crowe isn't) that you want to root for.

Cinderella Man might even be considered an Oscar contender if not for its release date. It's likely no one connected with the Academy will remember it six months from now and that's too bad.

Cinderella Man is not a great film, but it's very good. I've always believed that Ron Howard doesn't get enough credit, but more and more I read critics bashing his films. I mean, come on, he's already being slammed for The Da Vinci Code and it won't be released for almost another year! Howard has been accused of everything from poor craftsmanship to selling out. Sorry, I don't buy it.

Howard isn't my favorite director and I don't care for some of his films, but that's an issue of taste; he's not incompetent. As a director, he's hired to produce films that will be entertaining to a large audience. For quite a lot of the movie-going public, his films are entertaining. Splash, Coccoon, Backdraft, Apollo 13, Far and Away, A Beautiful Mind and many others attest to the fact that Howard knows how to make an entertaining film. That's his job.

Everyone's tastes are different. You might not like Cinderella Man, you might not think what Howard produces is art, and you might think he's too Capra-ish in light of Scorcese, Tarrantino, etc. That's fine. But he's not incompetent. Learn how to separate taste from craft. They're two different things.

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