Memoir recounts teen’s true tale of survival
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By Kam Williams
Despite being saddled with
a couple of generic American
names, John Smith’s (Marcel
Ruiz) life story has been anything
but boring. It’s just too
bad that the shy, 14-year-old
has been too embarrassed to
share it.
You see, he was born in Guatemala,
but raised in Missouri
by Brian (Josh Lucas) and Joyce
Smith (Chrissy Metz), the missionary
couple that adopted
him as an infant. But even
the terrific childhood they provided
couldn’t supply answers
to nagging questions that still
burdened the boy in junior
high, like, “Why didn’t his
birth mom love him enough
to keep him?” John was so
traumatized that he gave his
teacher a lame excuse the day
he was supposed to make a
class presentation about his
family tree.
Luckily, he did have a couple
of BFFs to hang out with
in Josh (Isaac Kragten) and
Reiger (Nikolas Dukic). However,
the three could be a little
rebellious, like on the afternoon
of Jan. 15, 2015 when
they were warned by a stranger
not to tempt fate by wandering
out onto seemingly-frozen
Lake St. Louis.
But they did, and fell through
the ice, one after another. Rescue
teams arrived soon enough
to save two of the kids within
minutes, but John had slipped
so far beneath the surface that
it took the extraordinary effort
of one very determined fireman
(Mike Colter) to belatedly
find his body by poking around
in the 12-foot deep waters with
a stick.
John had no pulse, since
he’d been submerged over 15
minutes. Yet, that didn’t discourage
first responders and
then the ER physician on duty
(Sam Trammell) at nearby St.
Joseph’s Hospital from trying
repeatedly to revitalize him.
Miraculously, John did come
around after about an hour,
which prompted an airlift to
the top doctor in the field
(Dennis Haysbert) in the St.
Louis area.
Thus unfolds “Breakthrough,”
a true tale of survival
based on a moving memoir
by Joyce Smith. Since each
step of the unprecedented
feat recounted here had been
accompanied by prayer, the
question triggered again and
again was whether the operation
had succeeded because of
state-of-the-art medical care,
divine intervention, or a combination
of both.
An edge-of-your-seat, faithoriented
/ medical drama,
equally riveting in terms of
spiritual and worldly concerns.
“Breakthrough”
Excellent (3.5 stars)
Rated PG for peril and
mature themes
Running time: 116
minutes
Production Companies:
Fox 2000 Pictures / 20th
Century Fox
Distributor: 20th Century
Fox
Josh Lucas, Chrissy Metz, and Marcel Ruiz in “Breakthrough” (2019). Allen Fraser
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WIDE RELEASES
Breakthrough (PG for peril and
mature themes) Adaptation of Joyce
Smith’s (Chrissy Metz) faith-based
memoir about reviving her drowned
son’s (Marcel Ruiz) via a combination
of divine intervention and state
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Josh Lucas, Topher Grace and Mike
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