As we head into the fall, and films gunning for awards are about to hit theaters like so many brown leaves, feel-good movies have been rather thin on the ground.
Stopping the trend is “Unstoppable,” an inspiring true story starring a seriously talented young actor named Jharrel Jerome that premiered Friday night at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The 26-year-old plays Anthony Robles, the NCAA champion wrestler who was born with one leg but nonetheless climbed to the top of his sport. His movie, co-starring Jennifer Lopez as Anthony’s hardworking mom Judy, is a veritable tear factory.
You know what you’re in for when, after winning a national high school championship in Philadelphia at the start of the film, teenaged Anthony quietly ducks out of a banquet celebrating him.
“Someone should tell him he won,” a college recruiter says.
The humble kid, who always refused to wear a prosthetic leg, instead walks alone to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and stares at the monument to his fictional idol, Rocky Balboa.
That’s the kind of underdog tale “Unstoppable” aspires to be — one in which the hero’s home life struggles are indistinguishable from the peaks and valleys of competition. One in which Adrian matters as much as Creed.
Jharrel Jerome is excellent in the role of wrestler Antony Robles.Courtesy of TIFF
Anthony’s version of those steps, by the way, is a mountain in Arizona where he was attending ASU as a walk-on with no guaranteed spot on the team.
Determined, he runs up the steep rocks using crutches with his fellow wrestlers. When he reached the top, it was one of many moments of victory that got applause on Friday.
Physically a beast, what Robles had to overcome most of all was the doubts of those around him.
Lopez plays Judy Robles, Anthony’s struggling mom.REUTERS
Ceaseless in her belief though is Judy, played by Lopez in one of her best performances in a minute. Her arc as a struggling mother of several kids is every bit as involving as Anthony’s and gets its proper due.
Lopez is lucky to have scene partners as giving as Jerome and Bobby Cannavale as her abusive deadbeat husband Rick.
“Unstoppable” marks the directorial debut of William Goldenberg, who also edited the Michael Jordan sneaker sensation “Air.” He has a knack for making the cliches and sentimentality of sports biopics not feel so, well, cliched and sentimental. I didn’t feel like I needed a shower when it was over.
And Goldenberg makes wrestling — which doesn’t have the cinematic punches boxing boasts — compelling to watch.
The wrestling scenes are compelling, but most impressive is the acting.Courtesy of TIFF
Vitally, though, the director gets a terrific performance from Jerome, which prevents “Unstoppable” from falling into the traps so many athletic yarns do.
Jerome, exploding with confidence, never screams or showboats. His passionate stares are not those of a trained Hollywood actor, but a very real student who’s concerned for his family while he grows up too fast.
