Cinderella Man: A Failure to Engage

Based on my own experience when I went to see it, I can explain quite easily why the movie is failing to draw in large crowds of people. Put quite simply, it makes a poor first impression (no pun intended, given its Depression area setting).

During the first half hour or so of the movie, it drags unbearably. I sat there fidgeting and wishing I had decided to see something else. In that all-important first half hour or so of the picture, it failed to draw me in.

It’s true that today we all seemingly have shorter than ever attention spans. We want to be hooked right away by something on the screen or else our attention goes elsewhere.

Alas, that’s exactly what happens in Cinderella Man. By taking so much time to set up the details of fighter Jim Braddock’s trying family circumstances during the Great Depression, director Ron Howard ran the risk of driving away his prospective audience, as opposed to luring them in.

It’s a shame, too, because the movie does spark to life once the bout takes place which puts Braddock on the comeback trail.

In fact, by the movie’s end, it’s succeeding in hitting some of the emotional highs that the Crowe/Howard/Grazer team produced in A Beautiful Mind.

But, unfortunately, their timing is off this time around. Consequently, they themselves end up delivering a coup de grace to Cinderella Man.