Cinderella Man
Universal Pictures | Release Date: June 3, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
6
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
At last, his (Howard's) first great (and filling) movie--inspirational, yes, but far from hokey; moving, absolutely, but never saccharine; and gripping, despite its being a fixed fight. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Cinderella Man is not a movie about boxing, but about this boxer who personified the heart and hope of 1935. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
In sum, the classical Ron Howard and his splendid cast have made a spellbinding movie that joins "Million Dollar Baby," as well as "Raging Bull," the first two "Rocky" pictures, and "Fat City" as one of boxing cinema's all-time heavyweight champs. Read full review
100
USA TodayMike Clark
A premier boxing movie and a forceful Depression remembrance for the socially conscious, Cinderella Man also ices it for stargazers that Russell Crowe is the dominant screen actor working today. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
An unflinching and historically rich rendering of an amazing story. He has made what is easily the best American film so far this year. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Ron Howard and Russell Crowe bring the Braddock story to vivid life in a superbly acted, beautifully shot, highly engaging drama that ranks as one of Howard's best efforts. Read full review
100
VarietyRobert Koehler
An exquisite ode to a working-class hero, Cinderella Man takes the almost impossibly perfect elements of the saga of underdog boxer James J. Braddock and fills it with emotional gravitas, wrenching danger and a panoramic sense of American life during the Great Depression. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It's an eye-filling, sumptuously detailed historical epic that grandly re-creates the bloody gladiatorial spectacles and smoke-filled, spit-flying, claustrophobically crowded arenas of its bygone era. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's the classic American tale of the family man triumphant, and Howard makes sure that it hits you right in the heart. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Smashing, supremely engrossing picture. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A broad, foursquare piece of populist filmmaking that happens to be tremendously moving. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Jim Braddock is almost transparent in the simple goodness of his character; that must have made him almost impossible to play. Russell Crowe makes him fascinating, and it takes a moment of two of thought to appreciate how difficult that must have been. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
How exceptional a film actor is Russell Crowe? So exceptional that in Cinderella Man, he makes a good boxing movie feel at times like a great, big picture. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's a crowd-pleasing, artful and convincing movie that just misses being great but nevertheless gratifies. Read full review
80
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Giamatti has his hands full trying to keep us from thinking about Burgess Meredith. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Ron Howard's Depression-era movie also works from the inside out, building a classic underdog drama from depth of character, rich texture, vivid detail and stirring performances.
80
EmpireIan Freer
Delivers old-fashioned, "Shawshank Redemption"-style entertainment. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
As a history lesson (Depression 101), Cinderella Man feels a bit secondhand. As a true-grit tale of redemption, however, it lands one solid body punch after another. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
It runs roughly two and a half hours, and the intensity spikes with every fight; without Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti, however, it would be flat on the canvas. They make it seem a better and more bristling film than it actually is. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
The film is most significantly about puzzled people trying to comprehend the cosmic reversal of fortune that was the Depression. They don't have much more than raw courage and simple virtues to rely on. Unlike most period pieces, Cinderella Man encourages us to fondly recall not songs or clothes but values we have largely mislaid. Read full review
70
Village VoiceEd Halter
Despite the tale's dusty pedigree, Ron Howard spins a ticket-worthy two-plus hours of movie-movie entertainment. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Lacking a more specific sense of time and place, Cinderella Man leans heavily on the technically proficient Crowe to slip into Braddock's skin, but he can only do so much with a character who's ready to be mounted in bronze over Central Park. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
What keeps "Cinderella" from complete hokiness is Crowe's utterly believable performance. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Lightly stained a nicotine brown and topped by two male actors who could steal a movie from a basket of mewling kittens and an army of rosy-cheeked orphans, the film is as calculating and glossy a hard-luck tale as any cooked up on the old M-G-M lot. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Cinderella Man's key emotional moments feel as if they've been predigested for an audience that can't be trusted to feel things for itself but needs to be firmly albeit lovingly pointed in the appropriate direction. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
Howard manipulates audiences without guile, jerking tears, piling on catastrophes, smoothing out dissonances, making bad characters badder and good ones gooder--and clearly believing that this is wholesome. At what he does, he's peerless. I wish I had more respect for what he does--and for myself the next morning for surrendering. Read full review
70
Washington PostStephen Hunter
With all that going for it, one must ask, why didn't they just tell it completely straight? In other words, why did they feel so compelled to create an utterly bogus Max Baer for the virtuous Jim to fight in the movie's admittedly compelling climactic, championship bout? Read full review
70
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Crowe is, in his unique way, astonishing. Even at his biggest moments he seems both convincing and somewhat reticent. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The performances do shine out through this dramatic miasma. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
With the notable exception of Martin Scorsese's opus, most boxing flicks suffer form a certain amount of raw-boned sentimentality, the sort of easy melodrama that pits naive underdogs against corrupt overlords, or age against youth, or purity against prejudice. Even the recent "Million Dollar Baby" succumbed in the final act. But this one, where "Rocky" meets "The Waltons," has us reeling under its saccharine weight. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Overlong and unevenly paced, Cinderella Man hits stretches (especially between bouts) when it threatens to lose its audience. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Ron Howard, an exemplar of honorable mediocrity, reunites with actor Russell Crowe and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman of "A Beautiful Mind" for this epic treatment of a seven-year stretch (1928-'35) in the career of New Jersey boxer James J. Braddock. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
The movie is calamitously miscast. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Viewers who remember Max Baer may, however, take issue with the way the film treats this charismatic fighter. In 1933, Baer became an important symbol of Jewish strength when he faced off against Hitler's favored fighter, Max Schmeling, and while reducing Baer to a bloodthirsty villain makes it easier to root for Braddock, it's an unfair bit of character assassination. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Without Crowe and Paul Giamatti, this movie would have little in its corner. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
Ultimately, it's Paul Giamatti ("Sideways"), playing Braddock's manager Joe Gould, who shines. In another actor's hands, Gould would be a secondary character lost in Crowe's shadow, but Giamatti outshines his co-stars at times with his everyman looks and delivery. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
He's a saint in the flesh, but not one who inspires great drama. Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
Ron Howard's bio-pic is an Oscar-baiting fairy tale that manipulates the audience at every turn of the clich. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
There's no irony within the film, but there's a whopping irony surrounding it. Just as Star Wars has finally ended, Rocky seems to be starting all over again. Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Cinderella Man is ostensibly the kind of old-fashioned drama that sends audiences home with a satisfied glow. But like so many of Howard's movies, there's something canned and phony about it -- it left me feeling cooked and dehydrated, as if I'd fallen asleep on a tanning bed. Read full review
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