Breakthrough

Breakthrough

Starring Chrissy Metz, Josh Lucas, Marcel Ruiz, Topher Grace

Directed by Roxann Dawson

The Story:
Fourteen year old John Smith (Marcel Ruiz) wants to be a typical teenager - play basketball, hang out with his friends, and talk to girls - but his religious mother Joyce (Chrissy Metz) wants John to focus more on herself and God.  Joyce maintains a stiff upper lip as she clashes with her husband Brian (Josh Lucas), and especially the new pastor at her church, Jason Noble (Topher Grace), and she exhibits a desire to control everything.

When John goes to play on an ice-covered lake with his friends, they fall through the ice.  While his friends make it out, John becomes submerged in the water, and first responder Tommy Shine (Mike Colter) hears a voice that tells him to keep going, and they find John unconscious in the water fifteen minutes after drowning.  Unresponsive, the doctors do all they can, but there's no pulse - until Joyce arrives and prays, and John suddenly starts responding.

Their doctor (Dennis Haysbert) tells Joyce and Brian there's not a lot he can do, but Joyce believes that God will heal her son, and no matter what anyone thinks, that is what will happen.  Joyce remains by her son's side, chastising the doctors who don't believe, and lambasts her husband for his lack of faith.  All the while John continues to fight, and Tommy struggles with the voice he heard - since he doesn't believe in God.

The Synopsis:
There's been a lot of discussion lately about the power of "thoughts and prayers," something that's uttered every time there's some major disaster.  For many, the idea of "thoughts and prayers" is meaningless, and in most cases that's true - how many people actually send thoughts and prayers to bad things happening?  Probably not a lot, but it makes you feel good to say it because it lets people think you actually care.  "Breakthrough" is a true story about the real power of prayer, but even that isn't a be-all-end-all solution to the problem - something that I was surprised this faith-based film actually somewhat addressed.

The film follows the harrowing true story of the Smith family (honestly, I thought the names were changed, but that's actually their name, as generic as they come) and how faith and prayer rocked their world.  When their adopted son John falls through an icy lake, he's underwater for fifteen minutes before rescue workers pull him out, and even then he's unresponsive for about twenty minutes.  When his mother Joyce arrives at the hospital, she cries out to God, and John suddenly gets a pulse.  She sticks with John as he remains in a coma, and continues to rely on the power of prayer to bring her son back, but she manages to tick off pretty much everyone around her because they lack the faith that she has to make her son well.

"This is Us" star Chrissy Metz delivers a solid performance as Joyce, a fierce mama bear who has severe pride issues and who undergoes a transformation of her own.  She struggles with pride and control throughout the film, and it's evident in how she acts towards others - she constantly butts heads with the new young pastor, she lashes out at doctors who say her son won't live, and even turns on her husband who won't go into the hospital room because he can't see his son in that condition.  She realizes what she's doing, and asks God - and others - for forgiveness.

"Breakthrough" isn't much of a breakthrough in storytelling, but you can't really embellish a true story like this.  We all know the outcome, and there's obviously no big twists and turns to the story, and that's to be expected.  Instead, it lays on thick the issue of faith, and basically anyone who either a) doesn't believe, b) doesn't believe enough, c) dares think the kid will die, or d) has any logical reasoning to back their thinking up is considered wrong, vile, and basically evil.  It's a continual cycle of the same argument over and over through it's near-two-hour runtime, something that could've been trimmed significantly.

What I was most surprised with was that the film addressed a question that most people ask after a situation like this - why John, when not others?  What is it about God that He allows some people to live, while other good-natured people die?  What is it about one person who receives just as much prayer and care as another, but one dies and the other lives?  Unfortunately, the film really doesn't offer an answer (not that there is an easy answer to begin with), but instead just throws it away as something to ask later.  If you cared after the film ended to ask that question - but you probably won't care.

The Summary:
Heavy-handed on the issue of faith and prayer, "Breakthrough" does offer an uplifting tale of survival in insurmountable odds, but does so by offering an unflinching belief that only prayer can fix things, and if you don't have enough faith, then there's something wrong with you.

The Score: C-