MOVIE REVIEW: This faith-based drama is no 'Breakthrough'

Breakthrough

(PG)

One star out of four

A couple or so times a year, a major studio rolls the dice to see if the audience head count for Christian/faith-based movies has changed. With budgets and marketing costs almost as low as most horror flicks, these films are minor cash cows and have a fervent and dedicated following even if the numbers are relatively small compared to non-religious films.

The lion’s share of those titles are distributed via streaming services or go the direct-to-video route.

Arriving with little fanfare or advance buzz, “Breakthrough” comes with all of the basic faith-building blocks, and if the sparse audience at a recent Saturday morning screening is an ndicator, it will come and go in a flash. If you want to see it theatrically, you better do so within the next few weeks.

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Wisely scheduled to debut on Easter weekend, “Breakthrough” opens with a character sinking in water face down with arms extended and feet together as if to appear like Christ on the cross. It is the first of many asides to the Resurrection dotted throughout the narrative. The book the movie is based on by Joyce Smith and Ginger Kolbaba is titled: “The Impossible: The Miraculous Story of a Mother’s Faith and Her Child’s Resurrection.”

As earnest and well-intended as it can be, “Breakthrough” is sadly one of the most ham-fisted, overwritten and badly acted movies of its kind. Helmed by first-time feature director Roxann Dawson (known mostly for playing B’Elanna Torres on “Star Trek: Voyager”), and adapted by Grant Nieporte (“Seven Pounds”), it is produced by DeVon Franklin, a preacher with a short but lucrative list of past faith titles to his credit (“The Pursuit of Happyness,” “Miracles from Heaven,” “Heaven is For Real”).

Although the story is ostensibly about her child John’s (Marcel Ruiz) fight for life after falling into a frozen a lake and being clinically dead for approximately 45 minutes, the majority of attention is paid to his adopted mother Joyce (Chrissy Metz — best known for the TV series “This Is Us”).

Heavily involved with her church along with husband Brian (Josh Lucas), Joyce is a Type A personality who wears her emotions on her sleeve and eschews what most people would consider to be basic social graces.

At first, Joyce’s fierce support of her motionless son is heartbreaking. After a medical team has failed to revive him, she calls on — make that implores — God to save him. And it works.

John begins breathing, defying the odds and the expert opinion of specialist Dr. Garrett (Denis Haysbert). What ensues is a two-day, wait-and-see where John’s condition comes and goes but his profile in the St. Louis suburb where the family lives skyrockets. The community comes together in prayer and song to support the Smith family in its trying time.

It is during the long stretch of the late second and early third act where Joyce overhears both medical personnel and local supporters speaking negatively about John’s condition, causing her to lose her cool. She calls these people to task, berates, brow-beats and bellows at them in a most un-Christian manner — which seems strangely out of place in this type of film.

She also dresses down Garrett for what she believes is not doing his job properly. This string of rants is not lost on Brian — or Pastor Jason Noble (Topher Grace) — a Californian whose unconventional style and haircut (yes, haircut) rubs Joyce the wrong way.

Unless you’re a mother who has witnessed your child battling for life, it would be thoroughly unfair to pass judgment on how any parent behaves in the throes of panic and depression. But that is exactly what the filmmakers choose to do and do so convincingly but never in a good way. It is during this same time where Brian is portrayed as pure milquetoast, a man afraid of his wife and his own shadow.

As this is a “based-on-a-true-story” movie, it’s difficult to determine just how much of what goes down in “Breakthrough” actually happened and how much was fabricated. But to portray the parents in such a negative and unflattering light is a patently bad idea.

For Metz, tackling such an emotionally draining role – negative aspects notwithstanding – was probably a good career move. A plus-sized performer in a sea of size zero competition, Metz could be positioning herself to become the next Melissa McCarthy.

It might be time for Christian-based producers such as Franklin to step back and reconsider their game plan. Releasing films like “Breakthrough” neither increases their audience numbers and certainly doesn’t improve their dramatic credibility. It is quite possible to make a film (“The Passion of the Christ,” for example) which keeps the faith without watering down the message.

(Fox)