Breakthrough

It cracks me up to read reviews of people complaining about the religious parts in movie. The whole thing was...it was advertised that way! If you don't like religion....don't go see a religious movie!!! Too funny! It was a great movie about faith and the power of it! Great to see a movie like this out there be a big hit!!

I got dragged to see this by my friend. I don't usually do sad movies. I was prepared for mediocre/cringy acting - and at first it was. But then I got caught up in the story and I forgot the acting and it was a really good story. It's not a movie I would have chosen for myself, but I'm glad I went.

I would like to remind the people giving it one star reviews or saying that some of the events or relationships are "predictable" that it's based on a true story and I'm told they stayed true to the basic events. In other words; sometimes life is predictable, but it's what actually happened. Someone on another review site said they found the relationship change between the pastor and the mom obvious and predictable - again, this is apparently how it happened to the actual people those characters are based on. 🤷‍♀️

If you like a good story and can overlook some not-brilliant secondary actors, it's actually a whole lot more fun than I expected to have at this movie!

I hate to tell those that think this was a miracle but the situation is really not all that uncommon. And it's pretty established medical science.

The intense coldness of freezing water slows organ function and allows for prolonged survival without oxygen. The first documented case was in Switzerland with a young girl that fully recovered after being underwater for close to 45 minutes. In fact, hypothermia treatment is now commonly used to care for patients that have oxygen deprived brains but restored cardiac and pulmonary function. Dr. Atul Gwande outlines this in his book The Checklist Manifesto - which I highly recommend for this topic and the many others covered in the book. Dr. Gawande is a great writer and all of his books are well worth the time.

As for the movie, it was what pretty standard fair for this type of movie. Better production value and bigger name actors than most Christian movies but nothing overly noteworthy.

This movie really pulls at the heartstrings. It was a film of fear, faith, hope and love. I thought the story was well put together and that it showed how anything can happen in the blink of an eye, yet how you choose to face it is the question. For this family and community-they chose to believe in their faith. Faith that the doctor could save him and faith in a higher-power.

Some people don't believe in God or have faith of any kind, and that's fine for them, but to see such reviews that are so angry at the mere thought that such a God could exist and that a miracle could happen, is unfathomable to them. I wonder why many non-believers get so worked up and angry over the possibility...when in life there are so many instances where truly wonderful and unexplainable things happen everyday.

I don't believe in God but enjoyed this movie. Good human interest story. From the pastors relation with Johns mother and John's fathers lack of faith out of fear of getting his hopes up. People have been underwater in undercooled conditions for a long time and survived without brain damage before, that's how I believe he survived. Faith is a funny thing, you either have it or you don't. I don't have, but John's mom has faith for all of us and them some. I believe they would've pulled the plug if it wasn't for her stubborn pig headedness. Seeing a community come together spiritually behind a person in need was touching. Feel good movie.