Breakthrough
Film
Review by Kam Williams
Inspirational
Memoir Recounts Teen's True Tale of Survival
Despite
being saddled with a couple of generic American names, John Smith's
(Marcel Ruiz) life story has been anything but boring. It's just too
bad that the shy, 14 year-old has been too embarrassed to share it.
You
see, he was born in Guatemala, but raised in Missouri by Brian (Josh
Lucas) and Joyce Smith (Chrissy Metz), the missionary couple that
adopted him as an infant. But even the terrific childhood they
provided couldn't supply answers to nagging questions that still
burdened the boy in junior high, like, “Why didn't his birth mom
love him enough to keep him?” John was so traumatized that he gave
his teacher a lame excuse the day he was supposed to make a class
presentation about his family tree.
Luckily,
he did have a couple of BFFs to hang out with in Josh (Isaac Kragten)
and Reiger (Nikolas Dukic). However, the three could be a little
rebellious, like on the afternoon of January 15, 2015 when they were
warned by a stranger not to tempt fate by wandering out onto
seemingly-frozen Lake St. Louis.
But
they did, and fell through the ice, one after another. Rescue teams
arrived soon enough to save two of the kids within minutes, but John
had slipped so far beneath the surface that it took the extraordinary
effort of one very determined fireman (Mike Colter) to belatedly find
his body by poking around in the 12-foot deep waters with a stick.
John
had no pulse, since he'd been submerged over 15 minutes. Yet, that
didn't discourage first responders and then the ER physician on duty
(Sam Trammell) at nearby St. Joseph's Hospital from trying repeatedly
to revitalize him. Miraculously, John did come around after about an
hour, which prompted an airlift to the top doctor in the field
(Dennis Haysbert) in the St. Louis area.
Thus
unfolds Breakthrough, a true tale of survival based on a moving
memoir by Joyce Smith. Since each step of the unprecedented feat
recounted here had been accompanied by prayer, the question triggered
again and again was whether the operation had succeeded because of
state-of-the-art medical care, divine intervention, or a combination
of both.
An
edge-of-your-seat, faith-oriented/medical drama, equally riveting in
terms of spiritual and worldly concerns.
Excellent
(3.5 stars)
Rated PG
for peril and mature themes
Running
time: 116 minutes
Production
Companies: Fox 2000 Pictures / 20th Century Fox
Distributor:
20th Century Fox
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