Breakthrough Movie Review

Breakthrough (2019)

Rent Breakthrough on Amazon Video
Written by: Grant Nieporte (screenplay by), Joyce Smith (based upon the book by)
Directed by: Roxann Dawson
Starring: Topher Grace, Marcel Ruiz, Chrissy Metz, Josh Lucas
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer

Plot
When her 14-year-old son drowns in a lake, a faithful mother prays for him to come back from the brink of death and be healed.

Verdict
This movie is boring. Much of the dialog doesn't feel real. This movie is preaching, but not engaging. The lessons the movie imparts are so simple they detract. Religious movies often are afraid to engage in conduct that strays from religious convictions. That always rings hollow. Anything I thought this movie might do, it doesn't.  The pastor has every reason not to like Joyce, but instead of engaging and overcoming the issue, he puts on a smile and ignores. It's insulting to the audience.
Skip it.

Review
It's cheesy in that it never feels real. I don't blame the actors fully, though they do overact. There's not much in the script. We get a very flat view of these characters, something that doesn't feel authentic. How the characters talk about God is very pointed. This had a comparatively low budget, and it shows, but that's not a problem.

It's easy to predict everything that's going to happen. I knew Joyce and the hip young preacher she dislikes would reconcile. It would be much more interesting to see the pettiness between Joyce and Pastor Jason. Instead we get a picture perfect reconciliation without addressing the main issues. Jason likes contemporary Christian music and doesn't conform to church norms. That makes him radical, and even worse he's also from California. That Cali tidbit encapsulates what's wrong with this movie. It uses easy and tired tropes to build a lackluster story. Movies often make the radical character from California.

Real life is messy. This event would certainly create a lot more turmoil than shown. It should strain Joyce and her husband's marriage. I would like this to be more like The Leftovers, but religious movies seemingly can't include anything that's 'bad.'
This is a wild event. A boy is clinically dead, then wakes up. The doctor seems uninterested and chalks it up to God. I would have rather seen him skeptical, trying to find a 'real' answer. The kid shouldn't make a full recovery. After the recovery John is kind of bullied, but the movie fails to explore that.

The dialog sounds like something you write down because it sounds good, not because it's natural. Even the kid's name, John Smith, is boring.
Religious movies usually show an already pious family that gets a gift because they are so good. I want to see a movie where an event rocks them to their core causing them to doubt and creating strife. Religious movies, and this is no exception, are usually little more than a Bible lesson.