TORONTO, Canada—Going into the premiere of Unstoppable, the real-life-inspired sports drama, Jennifer Lopez was the story. The star made her much buzzed-about return to the red carpet—and to the big screen—Friday night at the Toronto International Film Festival following a summer covered by tabloids and culminating in the announcement she was divorcing Ben Affleck.
Dressed in a metallic Tamara Ralph dress that was all a-glitter and accentuated with bows that hugged her bare legs like a present, she shone even when taking her seat in the dark. Lopez stars in and produced the film, along with Matt Damon and her once-again ex, Affleck. Damon was in attendance; Affleck was not.
But after the screening the attention was less focused on Lopez than it was on Anthony Robles, the real life subject who received an emphatic standing ovation
This year the TIFF lineup is awash in inspirational sports movies. There’s Netflix's Rez Ball, about a basketball team on a Native American reservation. There's The Fire Inside, about female boxer Claressa Shields. And there's Unstoppable, about wrestler Anthony Robles who was born with one leg starring Jharrel Jerome in the lead role.
Jharrel Jerome
There is a formula to these movies: The trick is how well they can pull that off and what surprises they can add to the mix. Unstoppable makes for a solid, if sometimes generic, riff on this well-trod genre.........