Sit through scores of movies like I do, and you appreciate any film that brings out an honest emotional response.

Even a heartstring-tugger like “Cinderella Man.”

This is a boxing movie like “Million Dollar Baby,” but it’s not a gritty tragedy. It’s directed by Ron Howard and stars Russell Crowe, who teamed up for “A Beautiful Mind,” but the lead character’s not some supremely gifted individual. This is the real story of James J. Braddock, a washed-up Irish-American prizefighter from Bergen, N.J., whose battle from near starvation to the top of his sport rallied a Depression-stricken country and gave people something to hope for.

Crowe plays Braddock as an average Joe who finds himself after the stock market crash with only two things to his name: his family (three little ones and a pragmatic and supportive wife, played by Renee Zellweger) and a wicked right hook. Plagued by injuries to his right hand, his career goes downhill at the lowest point in the nation’s economic history, and the few dollars he earns here and there as a day laborer aren’t enough to keep the electricity turned on in the family’s tiny apartment.

There’s nothing as heartbreaking as parents and their children in tragic circumstances, and few eyes were dry in the theater at the sacrifices Braddock makes for his kids’ sake.

Through a fluke of circumstances, his former manager gets him a high-profile fight – a sure loss, against a top-ranked fighter whose scheduled opponent had to cancel.

Braddock is so psyched at the idea of a paycheck – even if it means being a human punching bag – that he fights with an intensity like never before. With a left arm strengthened by working on the docks, he stuns the crowd and the sports writers of the day with a miraculous upset.

Paul Giamatti (“Sideways”) barely restrains himself from crossing the line into caricature as Braddock’s manager and trainer, but ends up holding the picture together with a little comic relief. His manic devotion to his fighter at ringside electrified the audience at my showing until we were whooping and punching the air along with the fans at Madison Square Garden.

At the heart of Braddock’s struggles, in and out of the ring, is his love for his wife, Mae. Zellweger seems born to play roles from this era – and her “Joisey” accent fits her perfectly. Together, Crowe and Zellweger make as believable a couple as you’ll see onscreen.

So in the span of two and a half hours, Ron Howard evokes all of humanity’s basic emotions. Anger rears its head in response to boorish boxing champ Max Baer’s insults and ire, and fear certainly plays a part in Braddock’s bout with Baer, who was powerful enough to have killed two men in the ring. Horror’s evident from the audience’s gasps at the 15 rounds of bone-crunching brutality these guys take – and give.

Manipulative? Perhaps. Considering that Braddock’s story is true, that he did earn the nickname “Cinderella Man” from the press, landed a place in the Boxing Hall of Fame and lived out a comfortable life as a businessman, Howard is only embellishing a ready-made fairy tale.

Though after weeks of watching feeble comedies, silly children’s movies and big-budget humdingers designed primarily to keep the studios in business, it’s a joy and a release to really get behind a story like this one.

“Cinderella Man”

Rated PG-13 for intense boxing violence and some language

Starring: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti

Directed by: Ron Howard

Length: Two hours 24 minutes

Now playing at: Astoria Gateway Cinemas, Cannes Cinema Center in Seaside

Short take: Audiences will get to laugh, cry, gasp and cheer at the story of real life Depression-era boxer Jim Braddock. The pummelings are brutal, but the story’s poignant and heartfelt.

Rating: Three stars (out of four)

Movie trivia: Paul Giamatti’s father made a name for himself in what sports-related career?

Answer: A. Bartlett “Bart” Giamatti was the Commissioner of Baseball in 1989, when Pete Rose was banned from the game.