Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story

"Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story" contains much information on this famous American Olympic diving champion. It covers not only his professional career but also his formative years as a youngster. His home background includes his relationship with his foster parents, and presents incidents which helped shape the athlete's adult attitudes and behaviors. Alan Hines' script tends to be uncommonly sad and sentimental; indeed, to go by Hines, this champ certainly did not have much fun either as a child or adolescent. In fact, his adult life was also depicted as being loaded with dismal challenges. It's all a rather gloomy picture painted of this celebrity, who appears to be a very nice guy having one sad thing after another happen to him. Still, the TV script claims to be based on a book coauthored by Louganis himself, so one hopes that this presentation is reasonably authentic. Mario Lopez acquits himself well as a sensitive, grown up Louganis.

mario lopez is not gay enough for this movie. and he doesn't act like Greg louganis at all. Watching him on the screen is like watching a straight guy doing drag, it just doesn't feel authentic. And you can just tell when he felt that he needs to act gay, and when he just acted as if he is himself, but not the Louganis. And when he tries to talk like a feminine gay guy, it just doesn't feel nature. So I think that he should stop trying to be gay, he simply can't act like a gay. And his body is more a bodybuilder type, rather than the actual diver type body. However, The casting director picked the right boy and the right teenage actor. The boy can act. And the teenage actor is so obviously gay, and it feels real to see him as Greg. he also has a swimmer's body to match, too.

This is a TV film about a diver, but it doesn't have lots of skin scenes, if you know what i mean. :)

Despite the stigma the film attracts by being a "TV movie", Breaking The Surface is well worth a look. I read Greg Louganis' autobiography before I saw the movie, and I must admit that there were distinct advantages and disadvantages with both. The poetry of Louganis' sport was much more evident in the film - but there was a much more personal account of the man in the book. Mario Lopez acquits himself well here, and I hope he will begin to move onto better things. The rest of the performances are adequate, nothing more. The film has a distinct "not-for-the-cinema" feel about it, which is why it will never reach a greater audience than those who come across it in their movie store, or are channel-hopping and realise that the biopic of "that guy who hit his head in the Seoul Olympics Diving Board" is on.

All of this is a pity - because the movie has a lot to offer, inspiration, a lovely sense of tension, and real believability in one of this decade's true inspirations.

When I was growing up, the networks had a biography of "somebody" going on almost every week. They were pretty decent, not blockbuster type stuff, from what I could remember, even though they were done on a shoestring budget. I learned much about folks through those. very informative which made up for much. But isn't that what these kind of TV movies are about? Today I caught The Greg Louganis Story on cable and it reminded me of those bio-pics.

It had to be something for Mr. Louganis to write a book about his life -- let alone do a film about the good and bad of it. There is not question that he is the best diver in United States History and worked as hard as heck to get that way - and that came though in this film. What also came through was his struggles - family, inner and just wanting to be loved while being professional and becoming a top grade athlete. I cannot tell you how sad it made me to see how some folks are just out to take advantage of others who work hard, and how devastating it became when Mr. Louganis was diagnosed with HIV. But the triumph came though the film as he did find a voice and let us all in on everything personal as well as professional.

Mario Lopez did a wonderful job in this film as well as Michael Murphy as his father. This is a TV movie about the trials of a superior athlete and his personal wins and failures as well. It was very brave of him to open himself to everyone but by doing so I am sure he has helped those who have the same struggles as well. Good TV Movie.

This is a great movie. Not a happy one, mind you, but very well directed and full of emotion. I was very impressed that this was a TV movie. The only thing distracting to me was the changing back and forth from video to film, I think it would have seemed more like a movie without the video. A very touching true story of courage and sadness, of dispair and hardship,and of hope. Excellent performances and great musical score works perfectly with the story.

I was expecting more or less a "lifetime" type movie but while it has that type of theme, this was an impressive bit of film-making. It also helps to know the real Greg oversaw the entire story and made sure that it was accurate, so you know you are getting a real "true" story. Highly recommend.