The Unbreakable Boy is an adaptation of a ebook based mostly on a real story a couple of household combating their eldest son’s mixture of autism and a uncommon brittle bone illness. It takes a considerably humorous method to the proceedings, permitting the titular boy, Austin (Jacob Laval), to relate occasions from his personal perspective. The film hits so many acquainted notes, nevertheless, that the truth that it’s a true story virtually appears much less plausible contemplating we have seen so many equally structured films.
The Unbreakable Boy opens with the standard document scratch, “You are in all probability questioning how I acquired right here” machine, which units the tone for the remainder of the movie and its paint-by-numbers plot. We start with Austin’s dad, Scott (Zachary Levi), tying one off at a New Yr’s Eve celebration and drunkenly driving Austin and his youthful brother Logan (Gavin Warren) house, barely staying on the street.
Earlier than we all know how that fateful automotive experience ends, director Jon Gunn winds again the clock to see how mother Theresa (Meghann Fahy) met Scott. We study that Scott has an imaginary buddy, Joe (Drew Powell), whom he interacts with on a regular basis (one of many film’s solely distinctive components). We additionally discover out that the sudden being pregnant whereas relationship led to Austin’s early start and the invention of Austin’s a number of circumstances.
‘The Unbreakable Boy’ Is Confused & Inconsistent
The Unbreakable Boy
1
/5
- Launch Date
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February 21, 2025
- Runtime
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100 Minutes
- Director
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Jon Gunn
- Writers
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Jon Gunn
- Jacob Laval is vibrant, emotionally intuitive, and humorous, the one shiny spot of the movie.
- A poorly edited film that feels both random or fully clichéd.
- The film is miscast and focuses on probably the most uninteresting character, Scott.
- A particularly predictable film that is emotionally manipulative and constructed solely of clichés.
There are moments inside the story which have an trustworthy depiction of elevating youngsters, struggling as a younger household, discovering small wins and overcoming robust losses. However the saccharine nature of many of the movie and its onslaught of clichéd characters and occasions (a bully whose mother has most cancers and pa is in jail even will get known as out for being a cliché in a singular second of self-awareness) make it arduous to understand the honesty and realism underpinning the precise story.
It looks as if we’re presupposed to really feel that Scott would not know the right way to relate to his troubled son, and but we preserve seeing them relate simply nice. Scott goes from being flummoxed by autism, however then appears to have excellent options: “Let’s go fly!” (They get on a park swing set.) There’s a fixed sense that the film is making an attempt to inform us what we’re presupposed to really feel, with out letting us really feel it naturally based mostly on the occasions going down on display.
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A very odd part sees Austin lash out violently towards his household in frustration, which is not unusual or unusual habits for a kid with (and even with out) his distinctive challenges. What’s unusual is how this escalates instantly right into a hospitalization in a particular ward that we do not get many particulars about (although we’re led to consider that this place is “horrible” and he must get out). We’re additionally informed that the medicine Austin took led to the outrage, which additionally stands considerably imprecise within the better context of his struggles, and the truth behind this story.
Because the story continues to hit acquainted plot beats, a lot of which deal with Scott’s alcoholism and switch to religion, it appears the actual seriousness of autism and the right way to handle it day-to-day will get shunted apart. One assumes the ebook itself covers in additional element how this was all managed by the household. For the viewers, it is largely left unclear.
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A Acquainted Style Damage by a Acquainted Method
The biggest impediment going through The Unbreakable Boy is simply how acquainted all of us are with the sort of story. That does not imply we will not get pleasure from it or see it with recent eyes. Cinema is filled with sequels, prequels, remakes, and reboots, and, in some methods, audiences love sure acquainted flavors, constructions, and genres greater than when they’re requested to embark on a completely new kind of journey. The problem with The Unbreakable Boy is that the execution additionally brings nothing recent to the desk, so the substances are as stale because the recipe.
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Every plot flip takes us to a spot we have been, however after we’re going there with characterizations, scenes, units, and even dialogue that additionally feels well-worn, it is arduous for the movie to face out. There are little pockets of honesty and reality embedded on this story, and it is credit score to the inventive workforce that they might convey these out. The way in which a pair struggles to handle stress and household on the similar time is a common place to begin, and the way in which the characters discover happiness in atypical moments and connections regardless of their challenges has the potential to be heartwarming, even inspiring.
The story has the lofty objective of reminding us what ‘actually issues’ and the way we will worth the little issues regardless of struggles, disappointments, and disasters. It is solely probably that, when you’ve by no means seen a movie a couple of household’s struggles, you will assume The Unbreakable Boy delivers on these fronts. But when this ain’t your first rodeo, do not count on something new or completely different.
Respectable Performances Cannot Carry the Day
After his time on the TV sequence Chuck, Zachary Levi grew to become greatest identified for Shazam! and the much less well-received sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Levi had famously gone on document saying he was let down that his star did not shine brighter following the superhero function. Within the function of the alcoholic father, Levi appears a bit miscast. He comes off as fairly a bit older than Fahy, who performs his spouse, and never a lot youthful than his personal father, performed by Todd Terry. His scenes together with his imaginary buddy Joe could be one of many movies’ solely good additions, and he appears to shine in these bro-comedy moments. However he struggles a bit to be a convincing father weighed down by substance abuse, youngsters with particular wants, and his personal forgotten goals. He fairly merely would not have the vary, or dramatic gravitas, to drag all of it off.
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Apart from loving video video games, Fahy’s character’s distinctive trait is her love of video video games, however other than that, it is arduous to see the character as something extra. It isn’t Fahy’s fault per se, simply that the character appears to exist solely to mirror no matter Scott goes via at that time within the story. Someplace within the center, she flips from being fully tolerant of his errors to genuinely hating his alcoholism because of her personal background with it. Sure, we discover out far too late within the story that she got here from a household that struggled with alcoholism. At one level when they’re relationship, Scott jokes he would not even know her final identify, but it surely factors to an actual challenge all through the film. We by no means get to know a lot about this character till now we have to for plot functions.
Jacob Laval stands other than the remaining in his efficiency as Austin. He brings humor and levity to the story, and he excellently toggles between being consumed by his points and making an attempt to be a shiny beacon via them. Patricia Heaton pitches in with a couple of brief scenes as a very “old style, robust love” mom to Levi’s Scott, however we by no means get way more about her or the connection, and Peter Facinelli pops in because the magical blue jeans-wearing preacher kind. The truth is, it is shocking he by no means turned a chair backwards, sat on it and mentioned, “You recognize who else had a mighty cross to bear?” Perhaps he did, and it simply did not make the ultimate reduce.
All in all, The Unbreakable Boy is lots like a variety of different films, and there’s little to the characteristic model that is not additionally in its trailer. If the primary 100 plus minutes weren’t sufficient, the film additionally ends with the traditional line, “He wasn’t damaged, I used to be,” which places the proper groan button on all the exhausting bundle. The Unbreakable Boy will probably be launched on Feb. 21 from Lionsgate.