Cinderella Man: Must be a Paul Giamatti Thing

I was one of the fortunate people that got to see the new Ron Howard movie, Cinderella Man, at the sneak preview last night.

I don't want to spoil it but dude, is there anyone more deserving of an Oscar these days than Paul Giamatti?

In my very last post, I wrote about seeing Sideways and seeing similarities in myself and his character in that movie. I spoke of us all living in a world of improbabilities as we hope and dream the best, while we do what we need to do to get through the day working and paying our bills. This movie sure tags onto that. One thing you'll want to see, besides the familiar story and sense of knowing what will happen in the movie throughout, is Paul's character here. He does many extra expressions along with his dialogue that make his performance here stand out to me above the message of the entire movie. Lots of wit and charm and that same sense of uneasiness he had in the previous character he played in Sideways.

The story in Cinderella Man will seem like it's been told before. Like a lot of sports movies, this one has many similarities to Rocky or the Karate Kid or Rudy or even the Bad News Bears. However this time around, it's not make believe. This really happened this way. The story is being told to us even if Hollywood has already been there previously, yet does it hurt us to see it again? Certainly not! One experience I noticed in this flick was the reality of the surround sound. The theater was packed and everyone cheered as the crowds cheered in the movie. There also were those heartbreaking moments with interaction of Russel Crowe with his kids or Rene Zelleweger's reactions in Church that you heard enormous sighs of pain. You can feel this movie as well as see it.

The last sentence I wrote in my last post in regards to flawed human beings: "Some of us can accept rejection, deceit and lies. But we can all have dreams, one and a million chances, even if they are only fun moments of imagination we can only just think of." (Yeah, that was 2) True, but...
You can spend your entire life trying to be great at something whether its sports, work or music and art yet sometimes the opportunity falls in your lap and you have the chance to make it something big. I guess this is why I like films like Cinderella Man. The evitable becomes inevitable. A chance at something becomes a gift. Can we all get one?