In what promises to provide the first sure-fire Oscar buzz of 2005, Cinderella Man reunites the star and major crew of A Beautiful Mind for a historical sports film with attention to detail as its knockout ally. Based on the real-life events of the life of boxer James J. Braddock, the Ron Howard film uses the story to not only show a comeback at its most heartening, but also portrays the stark struggles of working-class Americans during the era of the Great Depression. The quality of the film resides in Howard's ability to balance his attention on every single character and setting in the film, spreading the wealth of his cinematic eye for detail to every dark corner of its production. The film's crew changed over several times, with such transitions, along with an injury to star Russell Crowe, delaying the film from its expected December, 2004 release to a week opposite the hype of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith in early summer, 2005. With Howard coming on board after the film was already rolling around the studio for some time, it is perhaps no surprise that his usual collaborator for music, James Horner, is absent from Cinderella Man. The irony in this situation is that Horner is adept (or obsessed, some might say) at creating music with a distinct Irish flair, a genre of music that would creep into the eventual score for Cinderella Man provided by Thomas Newman. No stranger to ethnic and experimental instrumentation, Newman incorporates an Irish influence into his music with less of the outward and over-saturated expression that often irritates listeners of Horner's music.
Newman has been experiencing a second renaissance in his career since 2003, with Finding Nemo, Angels in America, and Lemony Snicket all leading the highly talented composer on a path away from his plunking, instrumentally bizarre experimentation of the late 1990's and early 2000's. As you would expect, Cinderella Man demands a weightier dramatic presence much closer to the sound of Angels in America than that of American Beauty. Fans of the era in Newman's career in which he announced his presence to the world with scores like The Shawshank Redemption and Little Women will be impressed and heartened by Cinderella Man. While the bravado and large-scale crescendos of Angels in America and his other recent successes are not present in the vast majority of Cinderella Man, the score is built on a solid orchestral foundation worthy of the era. That said, most of Newman's effort meanders in the distance, allowing the atmosphere inherent in the picture to be the primary storyteller.
Overall, on album, Cinderella Man features less than 30 minutes of score, with the cues (sometimes beginning with the sound effects of crowd noise) often exiting as quickly as they enter. The period songs are appropriate, but break the flow of Newman's score. The final handful of triumphant cues indicate yet another strong score from Newman, but it takes a while to get there, and with the shortness of the cues and the lack much relation between score and songs, the album loses a star in rating. Nevertheless, Newman's continued technique of stating heroism in various layers of restraint is impressive.
(www.filmtracks.com/titles/cind...)