Topher Tracking Issue 04: Breakthrough
Praying this doesn't mean I have bad taste.
Lately, I’ve been wondering if my ironic love of trash can actually be called “ironic” anymore. I breathlessly followed the Sex and the City reboot, I actively look forward to new episodes of The Kardashians, and-just this week-I teared up at Michael Bay’s Ambulance. At what point do I admit to myself: I just have bad taste?
This is all to say that (spoiler alert) I kinda loved Breakthrough (2019), a Christian film I was fully prepared to mock.
Listen, I’m not arguing Breakthrough is good. The dialogue is cheesy and there’s something insidious about the implication that God will only save kids whose moms fall just between Sarah Palin and Marjorie Taylor Greene on the folksy-faithful scale.
But Breakthrough was a fun watch! Not once during the 2-hour runtime was I tempted to stare at my phone. And you know what? I can’t say the same for Interstellar.
Basically, Breakthrough is all killer, no filler. So let’s get into it!
We open on a boy’s dramatically lit, seemingly lifeless body floating through water. SMASH CUT to that same boy waking up in bedroom that says his entire personality is “basketball” and Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk blasting at an eardrum-numbing volume.1
There’s a montage of the members of the town starting their day, and we get a shot of Topher, as Pastor Jason, rolling up to his Megachurch. His light-colored skinny jeans and Bonobos shirt tell us immediately that Pastor Jason is not your daddy’s pastor.
Meanwhile, the boy from earlier, John, is acting up at home, to the chagrin of his mother, Joyce (Chrissy Metz) - the patron saint of passive-aggressive praying. Joyce is a deeply religious, no-nonsense “mamma bear,” who, despite the film’s best efforts, is the most insufferable character in the movie. Luckily, Metz’s performance is so compelling it almost made me forget I wanted to strangle her character.
Fourteen-year-old John’s feelings of isolation and small rebellions befuddle Joyce, but don’t worry, God had a plan for them and that plan involves DROWNING JOHN IN FREEZING WATER.
Joyce also butts heads with Pastor Jason over his attempts to modernize the church2 by bringing in alternative rock bands and talking about The Bachelor in his sermons. Joyce makes it clear she is not a fan of his methods. His wife wears tops with shoulder cutouts, for God’s sakes! The Culture Wars start at home, kids!
The next day is Martin Luther King Day, and John and his friends decide to honor it by being typical fourteen-year-old asshats, sliding around a frozen lake. Then, the big moment from the trailer happens! John falls through the ice and disappears under the water for over 10 minutes.
Enter Tommy, first-responder and resident skeptic. Tommy and some Paul Rudd-looking motherfucker put on special wetsuits and start dragging the bottom of the lake for John’s body.
They are about to give up, when Tommy hears a white guy voice yell “go back!” He goes back in and finds John, who has looked better.
Pastor Jason is jogging when he gets the news so he rolls up to the hospital in a Puma tracksuit, which I am adding to my spring style inspo Pinterest board ASAP.
At the hospital, Dr. Allstate Guy explains that, while John is in good hands, he is unlikely to make a full recovery or even wake up. They put John in an induced coma.
Act 2 is a lot of scenes of Joyce berating people who don’t believe John will survive (ya know, cause of the whole being clinically dead for an hour thing). One of the cynics is a doctor on John’s team, AKA dickwad-in-residence, who is so cartoonishly abrasive, he seems to exist for the sole purpose of making Joyce look sweet by comparison. Mission not accomplished, Breakthrough!
Some of John’s friend’s start a Facebook page for him, and the story is picked up by the news. This made me wonder how many evangelical teens are currently praying that God will help them go viral, too.
Pastor Jason and Joyce discover John can hear them when he starts squeezing their hands in response to basketball trivia.3 But, when Dr. Allstate Guy tries the hand squeezing thing, John does not respond, which TBH is a pretty good bit.
Joyce opens up to Pastor Jason, revealing that she gave a baby up for adoption when she was eighteen-years-old. She tells him she has never forgiven herself, and Pastor Jason nods like that makes sense. Meanwhile, I was yelling at the screen, “GIRL, SOUNDS LIKE YOU MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE!”
I’m not really sure what the takeaway is supposed to be, here. Is Breakthrough saying eighteen-year-olds should be raising babies? Between John’s feelings of anger toward his birth mother and Joyce’s guilt (which is never resolved), this movie seems pretty anti-adoption. Make it make sense!
D___ it, Breakthrough! I’d be so mad if you weren’t so good!
The news interviews Pastor Jason, who asks viewers to pray for John. Luckily, this news story seemingly is played on every TV across America, even in the dive bar. With all due respect, maybe the bartender should change that channel to, I don’t know, sports or an ironic 80’s movie. People come to your establishment to get laid, sir!
Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Pastor Jason leads John’s family in prayer, and a huge crowd of John’s supporters gather outside his window and start singing. And, through my cynicism, I felt things. Again, this movie has flaws that taken all together make it a bad movie, but I’m a freaking sucker for a community coming together.
Oh also, Tommy the rescue worker is having a crisis of faith, because he heard a white dude yell “go back” and no one else did. So he shows up at the hospital in the middle of the night to creepily stare at John. Hey, aren’t there visiting hours???
The next day, it’s time for John to wake up! Pastor Jason offers to leave, because maybe this is a family thing, and Joyce responds “you’re right, this is a family thing [dramatic pause] Which is why you should stay.” AWWWWWW and now I’m crying.
Anyway, John makes a full recovery and is back to playing basketball because THAT WHAT JOHN DO. And I kinda thought this is where the movie would end but nope it keeps going and wades into some hot-button ethical dilemmas that I did not think this Topher Grace newsletter would ever touch on but here we are.
John’s teacher, whose husband died in his sleep, asks John why “God chooses to save some people but not others.” Which is a good question the movie sorta shrugs off with another basketball montage. John’s gotta ball and that’s the Lord’s plan!
Back at the megachurch, Pastor Jason invites John and his parents up on stage for a panel interview like they’re at Christian Comic Con.
John thanks everyone who saved his life - but especially God.4 Then, Pastor Jason asks all the first responders to stand up, and Tommy stands!!! That’s right, Tommy now believes in white God (but an alternate reading is that he’s openly stalking John).
Much like Tommy, I experienced a come-to-Jesus moment while watching this movie. But, instead of God, I accepted bad movies into my life. I give Breakthrough 11/10 Pastor Jasons. Amen!
The lyrics “hot damn!” are pointedly cut out of this version, which I found almost endearingly puritanical.
When confronted with a paper sign-up sheet, Topher actually says, “It’s official! We’re going digital.”
In case you forgot, John’s personality = basketball.
Weirdly, Harvey Weinstein has ALSO been thanked more times than God at that megachurch.
“John’s gotta ball and that’s the Lord’s plan!“ !!!