RON HOWARD and Russell Crowe, the director and star of A Beautiful Mind, team up again to tell the rousing story of a beautiful heart the riches-to-rags-to-riches-again tale of boxer James J Braddock.

Braddock's fall from boxing's elite after a shoulder injury coincided with America's Great Depression of the 1920s.

His subsequent fight back to claim the World Heavyweight Championship galvanised a nation battered by poverty which saw his achievements as emblematic of the chance of a way out for all of them.

It's a carefully crafted picaresque tale that has an unashamedly old-fashioned feel to it. The ever schmaltzy Howard puts in plenty of period deprivation to temper his saccharine tendencies and with excellent turns from his leads produces easily his most satisfying film to date.

Crowe's less than heroic off-screen behaviour may have thrown the fight in US cinemas the publicity after he threw a telephone at a hotel employee in a fit of pique effectively nixed any chance of massive Stateside takings but on screen he is once again superb.

Howard presents Braddock as little short of a saint but Crowe at least makes him a very reluctant one. You can almost see his toes curl up when forced into the spotlight as the public adulation grows. He also conveys the sense of broken pride when he is forced to queue for work on the docks after a dire boxing performance halts his career.

Giving excellent support is Paul Giametti on a role after stellar turns in American Beauty and Sideways - who gets every last drop out of the potentially predictable role of Braddock's long-time manager and friend Joe Gould.

He is by turns comic and affecting and is proving himself one of the best character actors of his generation.

Renee Zellwegger does little beyong simperin and giving those lemon peel squints of hers as Braddock's wife Mae but she does have a touching chemistry with Crowe making you really root for their happiness.

The fight scenes are not the big pay-off as in a Rocky film, but they are still well done. The press bash out their reports on typewriters ring-side as a bulked-up Crowe receives and delivers some crushing blows.

Probably the most affecting boxing moment arrives before a punch has been thrown in the World Heavyweight bout with title holder Max Baer (Craig Bierko), who had killed two of his previous opponents.

The crowd greet Braddock's entrance into the ring with complete silence, a sign of the reverence they have for him and what he stands for.

It was sentiment such as this that moved writer Damon Runyan whose characters inspired the musical Guys And Dolls - to call Braddock The Cinderella Man.

Howard and Crowe could well make their comebacks at next year's Oscars ceremony. ****