Opie, honey: It’s a boxing movie, and we all know the Depression was hard.   The movie is at least twenty minutes too long.   It’s called “the point,” and in a sports film, you need to get to it, especially when we know how it ends.   Enough with the slo-mo, enough with the bread-line scenes — more fighting, more Giamatti.   With that said, as reluctant as I was to watch this one, the acting lifts some pretty damn non-dimensional writing, and I was surprised (as I usually am) by how much I ended up liking Zellweger.   I don’t know if I’d “recommend” the movie, but if you’re forced to watch it by a roommate or significant other, you’ll live.   Bierko in particular makes it worth sticking out; he should work more, he’s got that something.   (1/19/06)

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