Anything Is Possible

If you want great acting, then this isn't your movie. If you want a great plot or even a realistic one, same answer. But if you like movies with kids and a good piano performance, then this is a fun movie.

100% sappy. Maybe 10% realistic. After Lacey Chabert who is barely in this, and Jonathan Bennett, most of the adult actors are like they are in community theater. Some of the kids aren't bad. The story is a little slow and very predictable, but it's heartwarming.

But the total gem in this movie is 12 year old Ethan Bortnick. He plays a prodigy and he comes off a little like a savant and maybe even as very high functioning autistic. But his piano playing is golden. He performs several piano numbers at length, and a couple are repeated more than once. But remember it is the kid playing, not someone else, and what's more, he wrote the original songs he plays. He even sings. This is someone who has performed on national TV.

The kids have fun. Almost everyone in the movie is encouraging. But this is not a religious movie. If anything the theme is - you can do anything if you believe in yourself.

When you just want to watch a feel good show. This is a movie for you. I was hoping that there was going to be a happy ending. This wasn't a deep thinking movie, just a nice make you feel good show.

I couldn't get past 5 minutes, her voice is distracting and not in a good way! Romance is my favorite genre so I was willing to watch regardless of the low rating, but how can I listen to this voice for over an hour!

I bought this film from a Christian bookstore thinking that it was a Christian film. The 5 "Dove" rating on the front is apparently only an indication of the quality of the content and not the quality of the message.

After watching the film, it was clear that the movie was not a Christian film. It was clean, but it only glorified humanism and the power of the human spirit. Not once is God even mentioned, and there is no mention of God being the source of the young boys talent. The "faith" mentioned in the film is so ambiguous its practically meaningless. All of the key messages in the film point to humanism and self empowerment. There is no mention of Jesus, not even a nod or an allusion, no scripture, nothing - not even a trite Christian cliché.

The whole child prodigy thing is great. Squeaky clean. The movie drags and meanders something awful. Decent acting in parts. Cute kids. Feel good message, but powerless.

A nice story in Anything Is Possible is unfortunately hoisted on a ridiculous premise. It unfortunately colors the whole film.

Young Ethan Bortnick is the child of Jonathan Bennett and Lacey Chabert, a military family with Chabert still in the service and deployed on a relief mission to Japan which has been hit with a tsunami. Chabert goes missing and social services comes knocking and the kid learns that Bennett is not his biological father. Social services wants to take Bortnick away and put him in foster care.

Unless someone made a complaint and no one has, no way social services would get involved. They have enough work without looking for cases.

In any event the kid is lucky to find homeless veteran David Haines on the street to look out for him. And his musical talents on the piano and keyboard come in handy in trying to save an orphanage. All in the best Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland 'let's put on a show' tradition.

Anything Is Possible is a nice family film, but believe me it wouldn't happen this way in real life.