REVIEW: Unstoppable [2024]

Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 116 minutes
Release Date: December 6th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Amazon MGM Studios
Director(s): William Goldenberg
Writer(s): Eric Champnella and Alex Harris and John Hindman / Anthony Robles & Austin Murphy (book Unstoppable – From Underdog to Undefeated: How I Became a Champion)

I’m running out of time to be someone.

It wasn’t long after the family drama quiets so Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome) can finally concentrate solely on the wrestling that I started to wonder about logistics and fairness. Part of it was because they began showing weigh-ins and part was the early implication that competitors who wouldn’t take advantage of him only having one leg in high school definitely would in college. Suddenly the thought that Robles might actually have a strength advantage popped in my head considering the absence of that leg meant he could pack on more muscle in his chest and arms. And just when I realized I was becoming a rabid parent losing my grip on sportsmanship, the film pushed aside that exact issue by having the opposition say all that mattered was the battle on the mat.

I’m glad screenwriters Eric Champnella, Alex Harris, and John Hindman (all with “and” separating their names to imply they each did their own separate re-write while adapting Robles and Austin Murphy book) put that in because it’s a nice kick in the pants to get out of our heads and simply experience this inspiring true story for what it is without fixating on concocting reasons for the underdog to not be allowed to succeed. Anthony got enough of that in life via stares and comments othering him from the public at-large and his own stepfather (Bobby Cannavale’s Rick). He got it after winning a national title in high school and only being offered one scholarship because his disability made him “too risky.” He doesn’t need it from the audience of his film too.

Nor does he deserve it considering all he overcame. A rough home life trying to protect his mother (Jennifer Lopez’s Judy) and four half-siblings from Rick. The anger of having his dream be put in others’ hands by needing to become a walk-on at Arizona State University to impress a coach (Don Cheadle’s Shawn Charles) who didn’t think he’d last past the first round of cuts. A need to work full-time (alongside Mykelti Williamson in a role so small that I really thought we’d eventually learn he was Anthony’s father considering they got an actor that well-known to play it) while going to classes and hitting the gym longer and harder than anyone else just to keep up. There are so many dramatic forks that should have knocked him out, but he just keeps going.

It’s not an easy thing to give them all enough time to breathe either and I won’t lie and say William Goldenberg’s Unstoppable fully achieves that goal. The first half is a bit rough—riddled with clichés, ham-fisted dialogue, and just a litany of over-coming-the-odds tropes that we can’t help treating the wrestling as an afterthought. Because it is for a good chunk of the runtime. Sometimes it even becomes a pawn to the narrative for more in-home fireworks due to the constant threat of Rick exploding. That the end of this chaos actually brings more by taking us on parallel montages of Anthony fighting for his spot and Judy fighting to keep her house only gets our heads spinning faster because we don’t know where we should put our focus.

The emotion is what gets us through and we have Lopez to thank for it. Yes, the role is very much a mix of “loving mom who can’t get out of her own way” and “empowered woman taking matters into her own hands,” but stereotypes become stereotypes for a reason. There’s an honesty in the performance and a grounding sense of authenticity when Cannavale and Jerome start peacocking and huffing and puffing. Between her uncertainty about who to back and the other children’s silent stares at the floor, we’re able to feel the severity of the situation whenever Rick and Anthony flirt with spilling over into farce. Add a wonderful moment of admission later in the film over a box of fan letters and I’m kind of surprised her name isn’t in the award conversation.

Thankfully, Anthony’s junior and senior years bring with them a more singular purpose so he can finally breathe easy while we sit back and watch his pursuit of an NCAA championship without any other distractions. We can see that he’s lost his anger even before he tells Coach Charles because the movie itself has lost that scattershot brand of kitchen sink biopic desperation so few avoid. Now it’s about the mission. It’s about living for himself and attaining that which his mother and high school coach (Michael Peña’s Bobby Williams) told him he could. And Jerome is as good as always in the lead. It’s a part full of pent-up rage (which he does well to display), but also one defined by love (which is his bread and butter).

I’ll also say that the effects work proves very impressive. I don’t know how much is using a stand-in (Robles is credited as Jerome’s double for what we assume are the wrestling scenes), but Anthony never looks or feels like someone with two legs. His shorts are always flapping and the way he moves on the mat makes it seem difficult to imagine where Jerome’s other leg could exist. There are no stiff movements or obvious signs of digital removal to take us out of the moment and question the difficulty of everything he endures from jumping along the mat to hiking a trail he probably shouldn’t have even attempted. It goes a long way towards ensuring those times where he stands up to aggression have their necessary impact. Because you aren’t knocking this guy down.