Team PCheng

Just in case you need a little reminder that miracles do happen, then “Breakthrough is the film to see.

John Smith, a very American name is given to a now fourteen year old boy (Marcel Ruiz) who was adopted as a baby while his Christian Parents Joyce (Chrissy Metz) and Brian (Josh Lucas) were on a mission Guatemala.

John is a typical teenager, he goes to a Christian school and is a promising Basketball player, yet he also struggles with abandonment issues and identifying himself with his adoptive parents.

One morning, John falls through ice on Lake St. Louis while playing with friends. He was underwater for 15 minutes without  oxygen. Firemen on the scene knew it was not a rescue mission but a retrieval.

The fact that the firefighters were able to find John in the first place is a miracle in itself, The lake is massive and it was literally trying to find a needle in a haystack. They used poles to fish him out and one of the firefighters, Tommy Shree (Luke Cage’s Mike Colter) heard a voice telling him where to go, and with that guidance he was abe to find John, at first Tommy thought that the voice was his captain but turns out it wasn’t.  

John had no pulse when he was pulled out of the ice, he was rushed to the emergency room, where he was worked on for another 45 minutes.

Joyce was brought  into the ER to say goodbye to her son, but instead she held her son’s feet and said a prayer, and immediately John had a pulse.   

What I liked best about the Christian Drama based on real life events was that it had a few surprises up its sleeves. When you see the trailer and find out about the synopsis you’d think it would follow a straight forward plot but I enjoyed the added layers it had and it made the film even more interesting.

It was still a long battle, from when John came back, the possibilities of him being severely mentally damaged were high, it was still a long road ahead for the family but they had a lot of love, health and support from their community. The family’s Pastor, Jason Noble (Topher Grace) who has not exactly made a good first impression on Joyce also plays a vital role in the story.

You could tell that not all of the sequences were flawless, the two song/worship scenes were a bit off (lip synch and details like where is the mic and/or speakers) which is such a shame really but I’m just nitpicking here.

The film tells the beautiful story of faith and community, the film’s producers are even calling it a modern day Resurrection story and even if you might think that the movie was made by a specific group of people for them alone, well that’s where you’re wrong. The power of a mother’s love is universal and transcends faith and religion. Also, you might not realize it but miracles big and small is something that we all experience, sometimes we just don’t know it yet. 6/10