I enjoyed watching this movie, and was at the edge of my seat lots of times!
As usual, first the plot...
I do not wish to make the plot long, because many other reviewers have described it vividly, and I do not wish to be repetitive. So here is the gist...
Russel Crowe is a boxer to earn a living for his family of 3 kids and a wife, Renee Zelweger. During the time of the Great Depression, his family faces acute poverty, and he has to look for other means to get money because due to an injury he cannot fight as well. His agent gets him a contract one day, where he has to fight a guy and would be paid good money. He does so and wins the game. That leads his agent to encourage him to challenge the national champion (I think it was the ’national’ champion). Anyways, Russel wins and everybody is happy. By the way, he was called the ’Cinderella Man’ because he is able to rise from poverty and win, which gives the Americans hope during those bad times.
Initially, I did not want to watch this movie because the trailors made it seem like it would be a melodramatic movie with lots of patriotism. Moreover, a lot of trailors have ’swindled’ me into watching movies like ’The Day After Tomorrow’, which have absolutely no action and just silly melodrama. But my hubby dragged me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Russell’s acting is just amazing! And his agent has done a good job too. I cannot recall his name, but he has acted amazingly in ’Sideways’. I am no Renee fan, and honestly anybody could have played her role in this movie. In fact I find her irritating because she pouts a lot and her expressions are very artificial. Thank God in this movie she did not pout as much!
Overall, a great action film!