I feel like I should mention right off the bat that Breakthrough is a faith-based film, since for some people this may make or break whether or not you’re going to want to see the film. I know some atheists may not want to watch it because of this, whereas some Christians might want to watch it purely on the basis that it’s a new faith-based film. I typically like to watch a faith-based film once or twice a year just to connect a bit with my faith, but I can also recognize that they’re not usually the best made movies. They usually focus on the message over the movie, and so I’ve only really found a few standouts over the years. I feel like Breakthrough is a pretty decent one, and I at least think there’s something here to enjoy outside of its messages of faith.

Basically, Breakthrough is based on a real-life story. Interpretations of how much God is involved in a story like this will always be up to the viewer, but there are definitely true events that inspired the movie. Breakthrough is about 14-year-old child John Smith. In January 2015, John fell through a sheet of ice on a lake. He was underneath the ice for 15 minutes before being rescued, and many thought that he was dead for sure. However, there winded up being a nearly-impossible chance of recovery for him, and Breakthrough shows that story in a dramatic process. Since John is unconscious for most of the movie, the real main character winds up being his mother, Joyce Smith, as she stays by his bedside and prays to God for his recovery.

Probably the biggest surprise of Breakthrough for me was how much star power it has. The movie stars Chrissy Metz of This Is Us fame as the mother, Joyce. It has Mike Colter of Luke Cage fame playing the guy that rescues John from the lake. And finally, it stars Topher Grace of That 70s Show fame as John’s pastor. It was really nice to see such star power involved in a movie like this, and I definitely feel like it helped elevate the performances of the movie. A problem some faith-based movies do face is that they have amateur acting in them, but Breakthrough definitely had some convincing and powerful performances.

On the flip side, I do have one major complaint about Breakthrough. I hate to say this, but I just did not like the main character, Joyce. I haven’t seen Chrissy Metz in anything else, so I don’t feel comfortable blaming her acting on it, since it doesn’t really seem to be her fault. I just found the character to be a little unbearable at times. This is unfortunate since she gets more screentime than any other character, but she just got on my nerves a lot. Thankfully, the rest of the characters are really interesting, so this doesn’t wind up being too big of a problem.

That’s all I feel like I really need to say about Breakthrough. Like I said, most of you probably already formed your opinion on whether or not you want to see the movie purely based on the fact that it’s a faith-based movie. For anyone else, I don’t think that Breakthrough is the absolute best of the best in the genre, as it does fall into some cliche territory at times, but I do at least think it’s a really good one that sets itself apart from other faith-based movies. Aside from the previously mentioned star power, the movie just has a really uplifting story in general, so I think there’s something here that many people can get behind regardless of its messages of faith. While I am part of the target demographic for this kind of movie, I did enjoy it quite a bit. It’s not an amazing film or anything, but it’s one of the better ones I’ve seen in recent years.

3.5/5