There’s no shortage of true-life inspirational stories from the sports world, and Unstoppable is set to step into the ring (via its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival).
It’s the story of Anthony Robles (Moonlight’s Jharrel Jerome), a wrestler born with one leg. Robles, who excels in high school championships, has big dreams, including hopes of a scholarship to wrestling powerhouse the University of Iowa. But Anthony faces stiff competition and plenty of prejudice over his disability. Still, he’ll stop at nothing to pursue his goal of becoming an NCAA national champion.
Iowa abandons Anthony, and he turns down a full-ride offer from Drexel to attend Arizona State University as a walk-on so he can help his amazingly supportive mother, Judy (Jennifer Lopez), and four younger siblings when his abusive partner, Rick (Bobby Cannavale), abandons them.
In Arizona, Anthony works with coach Sean Charles (Don Cheadle), who gradually learns the full scope of his character and extraordinary commitment.
But as amazing and unique as Robles’ story is, Unstoppable is a rote drama that consistently plays it too safe. Produced by Artists Equity, which also made last year’s brilliant Air, Unstoppable feels less like a major feature film and more like an early-20s Disney Channel original movie (which is no jab at those movies; they’re fantastic, but this isn’t really the kind of movie that premieres at a major fall festival). Robles’ story itself is incredibly inspiring, and Jerome is solid, particularly nailing the physical demands of the role and the difficult scenes where Anthony struggles to prove himself.
But the film focuses far too much on his challenging home situation to its own detriment. There’s no doubt that his mother was integral to his success and the two share a rare and special bond. But Lopez leans toward the dramatic in the role (her celebrity star power makes it hard to accept her as a working-class mother). She overacts in many of her scenes, lacking the ease and winning naturalness of her romantic comedy era as well as the flamboyant swagger of Hustlers.
She often confronts Rick, a cookie-cutter male chauvinist pig who is a broken record for speeches about what it truly means to be a man as well as claims about how he provides for his family (spoiler alert: he doesn’t). Canwell could play a role like this in his sleep by now, and he basically does, without really putting any nuance on the man.
The film is most vibrant and engaging when it focuses on Anthony’s time with his team and coaches, Coach Charles and his high school coach, Bobby Williams (Michael Pena).
There, the heart of the story beats strongest. Pena is excellent as the warm father, while Cheadle plays a skeptic-turned-believer with a winning blend of charisma and intelligence. Watching Anthony win it over, even moving Coach Charles to tears at one point, is where Unstoppable really works.
The movie is well-made and it’s a lovely celebration of a real-life hero. But the whole thing feels very predictable, which equates to a general sense of mediocrity. There’s a problem when the most poignant part of a movie is its closing title cards, which update the audience on Anthony and Judy’s lives (personally, I’d rather see the movie in which Judy raises five kids as a single mom and eventually becomes the dean of a university).
There’s not much to write home about here – viewers are likely to remember Robles and her story, but the movie itself is dull and forgettable.
