After last year’s emotionally draining Million Dollar Baby, and the long tradition of boxing biopics that came before that (all the Rocky’s and Raging Bulls) yet another one might seem superfluous. But the first-rate teaming of Ron Howard and Russell Crowe (the second time, following A Beautiful Mind) for Cinderella Man means there’s no need yet to throw in the sponge. The versatile Crowe is outstanding as the thoroughly likeable boxer Jim Braddock – no Gladiatorial brute, he – in a heart-warming Depression-era rags-to-riches story of sporting triumph over adversity.