The Unbreakable Boy

I found this movie on DVD at my public library. Its rating seems a bit low, my wife and I found it enjoyable, interesting and entertaining. The end credits and extras include the real family depicted here.

Zachary Levi is Scott, working in pharmaceutical sales. One day he is at a clothing store and sees a pretty clerk. He stammers and manages to get her phone number.

The pretty clerk is Meghann Fahy as Teresa. They start dating and soon she calls him and says, "I'm pregnant." He eventually finds out other things, a function of not getting to know a person well before falling in love.

Anyway they have a baby boy, he seems healthy but cries a lot. They soon find he has inherited the brittle bone affliction from his mother and had some broken ribs during birth. In addition, as he gets older is diagnosed with autism.

All of this creates a slew of expensive problems for the family. Scott copes by drinking too much which exacerbates the problems. The movie is about their working through all the difficulties and achieving their own definition of happiness.

I will also make special mention of Jacob Laval who plays young autistic Austin as a 13yr old. While all the actors are good he elevates it to superb.

Good, worthwhile movie.

When I'm writing this 20% of the reviews are 1 star, which is insane. The only explanation is there are narrow minded people that only see Zac Levi's political comments and decided that was enough to trash the movie. I'm pretty sure they didn't even see it, because if they had then they defeated their intention because the $$ spent means more than the 1 star.

They also ignore all the other great actors who put in fantastic performances.

Jacob Laval puts in a stellar performance. His manic delivery of dialogue was wonderfully done as were his facial expressions. Pretty impressive for his age.

I had not seen Meghann Fahy before in a lead role, but now I'm going to be looking for things she's done in the past and future. She was rememberable in her performance as "T".

The supporting cast were excellent complement. Patricia Heaton and Amy Acker delivered as always performances that made scenes work.

I can only hope that people are wise enough to look at the rating distribution and realize there are haters and ignore the composite rating.

The Unbreakable Boy is a touching family drama based on a true story. The film explores important themes of resilience, illness, and unconditional parental love, yet it fails to fully develop them.

Pros: The story is inspiring, and the protagonist is likable.

Strong performances, particularly from Zachary Levi as the father.

A warm and uplifting atmosphere that highlights the power of family and support.

Cons: The plot is predictable, and the screenplay feels shallow at times.

Lacks depth in character development-despite its potential, the story never reaches its full emotional impact.

Overly sentimental in places, relying on clichés rather than genuine drama.

Overall, The Unbreakable Boy is a decent family drama, but it lacks originality and depth to leave a lasting impression. It's worth a watch but unlikely to stay with you for long.

The Unbreakable Boy was Cinemark's Monday Mystery Movie on February 17. It is an upcoming biographical drama film written and directed by Jon Gunn (the director of last year's Ordinary Angels). It is based on the non-fiction book "The Unbreakable Boy: A Father's Fear, a Son's Courage, and a Story of Unconditional Love," by Scott Michael LeRette and Susy Flory. I'll be honest, even though I'd figured out what the movie would probably be, I wasn't hugely excited about it; I was more in the mood for a rated R film (like the mystery movie being shown at AMC on the same day). However, by the time the film was done, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It tells the story of Austin, an autistic child with brittle bone disease. Austin is a joyful character who sees magic and wonder in the normal, everyday things of life. However, the focus of the film is more on the struggles his parents and younger brother face as they try to navigate how to best care for this child in the midst of the seemingly never-ending challenges created by issues beyond his control. Some people who have already seen this seem to feel it was a bit disrespectful to focus more on Austin's parents instead of him, but this personally worked well for me on multiple levels, because with a person like Austin, they are not the only person affected by their issues. Things like brittle bone disease and autism in particular affect *everyone* around that person. So it seemed only fitting that we also see the struggles his parents went through as they tried their best to care for their son. I enjoyed the balance of humor and sadness as his parents - especially his father - transition from trying to find ways to fix things about Austin that simply can't be fixed to realizing and appreciating that the unmitigated joy Austin has for life (and loving the people around him unconditionally) are lessons they can learn from him themselves. It also helped his father come to terms with the realization that there is nothing really broken about his son after all. While there are faith-based undertones to the film, it isn't anything that felt clunky or ham-fisted in its delivery, and for me it worked well (just like how it worked well for last year's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever) It's a PG film, so it is suited for all audiences, though there are some darker themes that are touched on such as alcoholism and a fractured family. However, the movie handles those themes well. Video review available on my YouTube channel.

While Austin does have more character than Music, feels a bit less like an autism stereotype, and has no real offensive scene (e.g. Prone restraint) except for maybe that one scene where Austin gets the wrong medication and goes ballistic, the movie as a whole still suffers from many of the problems Music had.

The most glaring issue being that the plot focuses more on the parent/caretaker becoming sober than it does about the challenges and uniqueness of being autistic. Not only is this a plot that hits all the beats you would expect from an addiction film, but it takes away the spotlight from what the movie's title is supposedly supposed to be about, the autistic kid.

The second, and this is a bit less of an issue compared to Music, but still a problem, is that the autistic character doesn't feel like a real character. Granted, they do try a little more with giving Austin characteristics outside of his autism (he's talkative and cheerful), but he still doesn't feel like an actual complex human being with motivations, an arc, and depth. And this goes back to the movie not really being about him. The quirks, emotions, and meltdowns he exhibits lack meaning and we have little reason to connect with this character as we don't really see from his perspective. And yes, even the narration feels flat.

The other characters also suffer from the same problem as Austin, yes, even the protagonist (Zachary Levi) feels one-note. All he has about him is his alcoholism. The characters have nothing special about them other than having a few funny and heartwarming moments. Zachary Levi's character also has a strange hallucinatory friend that pops in out of nowhere to support him from time and time and that's all he does. The only character I actually tolerated is Logan, who doesn't even do much in this film. He wants to help his bully, which is a nice quality to have. Unfortunately, his problem gets solved Dharr Man style.

The only consistent positive thing I have to say about it is the acting of everyone. They did what they were given, they were emotionally compelling enough, and they help us connect a little more to the characters and their emotions despite the glaring script. Austin even has speech problems which is a common thing for us autistic folks.

I can see why this film was shelved after the controversy of Music and frankly, it should've stayed shelved. And before you ask, I do recognize this is based on a true story that was written from the father's perspective. I'm aware of that. However, I have not read the book so I do not know how much of this is true.