Cinderella Man
Terri
It was a little long at 2 hours and 24 minutes, but this time I found myself looking at my watch, not because I was ready to doze off, but because I wasn't sure how much longer I could stand the tension.
It had all the aspects of a well told story, although it drug a bit at the beginning. By the time we had been living in squalor with the hero and his family for about forty-five minutes near the beginning of the story, I had long since gotten the point and was ready to move on.
Yet the story was compelling and unfolded seamlessly. By the time I walked out of the theater I knew what grade I'd be giving it.
I never read the verbal reviews per se before I see a movie (only the quantitative conclusions) unless it's borderline (a tie breaker) as to whether or not I'm going to see it. Since this one was a sure thing in that respect, I only read its reviews after I got home from seeing it. Then I scoured them carefully to try to find the antithesis of my own conclusions.
What I found to be the consensus among those who knifed the movie was its alleged predictability. My first thought was, "I guess they haven't seen Million Dollar Baby."
My other thought is that after approximately ten years of storytelling in my own right, I presume they don't realize that humans are hard wired to applaud and enjoy to the point of resonance only a limited number of plot developments, drama schemes, characterizations and conclusions.
I am completely convinced by now that there are only about half a dozen effective organizational patterns in which to tell a story if you want to end up with a satisfied, enthusiastic, supportive audience.
All such elements were in this story, and if predictability was the leading complaint, I say, "Bring it on!" in much the same way as the hero welcomed his new adversaries into the ring.
I felt as though I was buckled into a rollercoaster, rather than a theater seat and took an exciting ride from beginning to end. Thumbs up, way up! for me. I give it a grade of A! I thought it was well cast, well directed (Ron Howard) and the acting (Russel Crowe, Rene Zelwigger, et al.) was superb.
The reason the grade wasn't higher is because watching the violence in the ring, as well as the misfortunes of the family, cast a depressing mood much of the time. There was nothing whistful about it.
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. . . As we walked out of the Park Theater in Lafayette, California, Terri said, "Now that was one emotional movie.
. . ."It had everything I like in a good story: family, love, integrity, an underdog, adversity, likable characters . . . everything that makes a great story great."
. . . Thumbs up, way up! for Terri and she doesn't like boxing either.
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