In theaters

“Cinderella Man”

Directed by Ron Howard, written by Cliff Hollingsworth and Akiva Goldman, 144 minutes, rated PG-13.

The new Ron Howard movie, “Cinderella Man,” begins precisely where pop culture is currently at its happiest–smack in the middle of a boxing ring.

As the movie opens, it’s Nov. 30, 1928, with real-life boxer Jim Braddock (Russell Crowe) beating the daylights out of Gerald Ambrose “Tuffy” Griffiths. It’s a punishing fight, brisk and ferocious, with Griffiths struck dumb in the hail of Braddock’s blows.

Behind the camera, Howard is just as aggressive, swinging around the ring with such finesse that the scene draws inward, boiling down to the swiftness of the man’s right hook, the jaw it repeatedly slams, the cheer of the crowd.

A mere 48 seconds into the second round and Griffiths is flat on his back, with little X’s for eyes and a triumphant Braddock scoring a knockout win. For his trouble, Griffiths goes home with a broken face and a wounded spirit, but for Braddock and his manager, Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti), things are a bit rosier. They’re sharing a $15,000 pot. If history wasn’t poised to have its way with them, you’d swear their immediate futures would remain as bright as this. But that’s not the case. As directed by Howard from a screenplay by Cliff Hollingsworth and Akiva Goldman, “Cinderella Man” is a smart, beautifully crafted drama that wastes no time eroding into the next four years, where the bleak reality of the Great Depression has put down roots and pushed up thorns.

It’s here, in this gray world of hard times and harder luck, that Braddock has become a has-been bum with a broken right hand and a dead career. Unable to fight, he’s a loser in the ring and with the public (“You’re washed up, Jim–you’re one touch”), and with boxing kingpin, Jimmy Johnston (Bruce McGill), who revokes Braddock’s boxing license because he’s no longer a draw and because, as Johnston puts it, “business is business.” Now forced to line up daily at the Hoboken, N.J., docks to be chosen for work as a longshoreman, Braddock wears the face of the ’30s Everyman: weary, proud, but nervous as hell at what the future holds for him and his family.

At home is Mae (Renee Zellweger) and their three kids, who are drinking watered-down milk, wearing water-down smiles and eating scraps of fried salami in a dingy cellar apartment straight out of Dickens. Even before the power is shut off, which naturally happens in the heart of winter, there seems to be no light in this room, just a damp darkness that eats the light. With the bills piling up, they are a family nearly without hope, which is amplified when their youngest boy develops a cough that sends them and this movie into turmoil.

But not syrup, not cheese. “Cinderella Man” plays by the rules of the genre, yes, but its saving grace is that it doesn’t condescend to the times with false sentiment. That’s one of the reasons it’s so good and so superior to its bogus contemporary, “Seabiscuit,” which tried to romanticize the past by forcing it into a shape it didn’t have. That movie seemed as if it came straight from the dewy desks of Hallmark, sealed with a blizzard of phony kisses.

But “Cinderella Man” is different. Howard believes in this tale and these people, and with the help of his excellent cast, he elevates his story into the real thing. Channeling Frank Capra, he gets strong, moving performances from Crowe and Giamatti–and a good turn from Zellweger–while building his movie to an almost operatic second chance for Braddock.

Joe has secured Braddock a one-time heavyweight fight that will net him $250, regardless of whether he wins or loses. Braddock can’t believe his luck. Desperate but focused–he knows he’s fighting for food and electricity now–he takes the match and seals his destiny.

With a left arm strengthened by years of hauling grain at the docks, he rises up through the ranks, quietly generating the heat of public support, with one man waiting to put him on ice–the world heavyweight champion, Max Baer (Craig Bierko), who already has killed two men in the ring and now is looking to make it three. Coming off Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award-winning “Million Dollar Baby” and the television reality show, “The Contender,” you’d think the market for “Cinderella Man” would be saturated, that a final bout wouldn’t carry as much weight as it does here. Maybe that would be true if the movie was just about boxing, but that’s not the case. “Cinderella Man” is about these people, these times, and it does them proud.

Grade: A

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.