Well acted and well crafted movie about one of the least likely heavyweight champions in history.  Based on record, Braddock is one of a number of not particularly great or interesting boxers who held the title in the thirties, but the back story to his triumph is compelling and the movie tells it well.

Greatest boxing movies ever!  I was shocked Crowe didn't win an Oscar for his role or Giamantii for Best Supporting actor as Joe Gould his manager.  This movie had it all!!  Great picture, BRILLIAN acting, and an inspirational TRUE story.  It should have done much better at the box office in my opinion.

Boxer loses everything in Great Depression: wealth, health, career. Makes it back through patience and sheer perseverence. Doesn't sound like a great movie, but it is-thanks to amazing acting by the entire cast, Crowe in particular, as well as impressive attention to historical detail. You can acutally feel the poverty, despair and utter misery of the Depression as depicted in Cinderella Man. You can also see the strength of the social bonds and traditions that enabled Americans to carry through in the face of disaster. Quite a difference from the spoiled, loud-mouthed, boozing, gambling, steroid-addicted, shoe-and-soft-drink-peddling jocks of today.

This is easily the movie of the century.Beyond that,it's probably the best movie of The Depression,as well;in fact there is no better character to embody what The Depression was about,than Jimmy Braddock-who was such an honorable guy,that he actually paid the Welfare system back. It's one of the handful of films about real life characters,that unless you follow boxing history,you wouldn't know anything about-and it really brought the characters to life.

I just saw this movie today and it was great. Russell Crowe certainly makes a case for being the finest actor of his generation and putting himself in the same level as Robert DeNiro. Coincidently Crowe's Cinderella Man does for Braddock what DeNiro's Raging Bull did for Jake LaMotta, twenty five years ago, literally bringing him back to the American consciousness and into American folklore. Fighters like these deserve to be remembered. Braddock was a deppression era fighter who, through perserverance and a never say die attitude, won the heavyweight championship against Max Baer in what is generally considered the greatest boxing, and sports, upset of all time. Renee Zellweger is also great as Mae Braddock his steadfast and suffering wife and Paul Giamatti nails the role of Joe Gould, Braddock's manager and friend.