Unstoppable

Embracing and leveraging elements of a classic underdog tale, Unstoppable is a remarkable true-life story of courage and desire and overcoming obstacles that deserves to be told.

This inspirational crowd-pleaser is a tribute, first and foremost, to a man who has just one leg but more than compensates with heart, tenacity, and determination, kind of like the film itself.

The biopic puts to rest almost immediately any doubts about how Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome), an Arizona teenager born without a right lower limb, is able to win a state wrestling title despite his obvious disadvantages.

His high school coach (Michael Pena) knows that college recruiters will be harder to convince. With just one significant scholarship offer, and his dream school in Iowa not returning his calls, Anthony instead opts to pay his own tuition and try out for the powerhouse program at Arizona State.

When he arrives on campus, the longtime coach (Don Cheadle) tries to be realistic. “You’re going to have to prove people wrong just to make the team,” he explains.

Aside from that challenge, Anthony is grappling with a tumultuous home life. His feisty and supportive mother (Jennifer Lopez) encourages his championship aspirations even as her hands are full with Anthony’s four half-siblings whose father (Bobby Cannavale) is an abusive alcoholic.

Jerome (Moonlight) commands the physical rigors of the role — with the help of some visual effects — while also modulating Anthony’s external strength with his internal vulnerability. Lopez and Cheadle, the latter spouting the obligatory pearls of wisdom, top a first-rate supporting cast, bringing depth and complexity to roles that could have been reduced to cliches.

The film doesn’t rely on pity or lazy exposition to earn sympathy, such as during a training scene in which Anthony is forced to scale a rugged mountain trail on his crutches.

The directorial debut of Oscar-winning editor William Goldenberg (Argo) features some vivid and intense sequences on the mat, some of which feature Robles as Jerome’s double.

The screenplay, based on a memoir by Robles, yanks too aggressively at the heartstrings and shoehorns his story too neatly into a conventional narrative framework, complete with Rocky references and an inevitable big-match finale.

Yet despite the tropes in Unstoppable, you feel every bit of Anthony’s passion and sweat equity. We don’t root for him because of what he’s missing, but because of what he has.

Rated PG-13, 116 minutes.