Boxing movies generally have been driven by rage and ambition. They're set up to show how a talented young boxer, usually from a deprived background, transcends meager resources, attains fame and is brought low by rampant ego before experiencing his hard- won redemption.

Ron Howard's boxing movie, Cinderella Man, strikes a different blow. In telling the story of heavyweight champion Jimmy Braddock, Howard creates a hero who's not operating out of a pumped-up sense of himself. Braddock was a lunch-pail boxer, an ordinary guy who wanted to feed his family and knew he could do it with his fists.

In Russell Crowe, Howard has found the ideal Braddock. Crowe gives a steady performance rather than a showy one: It's the kind of star turn we used to see from actors such as Gary Cooper, a portrait of a boxer who's unassuming, tender and deeply embarrassed by his poverty.

In a scene in which a down-on-his-luck Braddock visits Madison Square Garden to ask former boxing associates for money, Crowe reveals a man crushed by the need to compromise his pride. Although the movie doesn't shy completely from the dirty side of boxing, it probably will be remembered as a hard-punching ode to perseverance.