The Unbreakable Boy

The Unbreakable Boy takes a turn toward something more sentimental than tough. Faith-based movies would be better if their happy endings weren’t always so rosy.

the real struggle here is trying to connect with this film beyond a wan appreciation that a father finally learned how to love his son for who he is. Good for him, I guess?

The character is largely sanded down to a toothy smile and a nagging sense that his dad always feels “close and far away at the same time, like even though I’m right there he doesn’t really see me.” He might as well be describing the film itself.

The movie is a very sincere and good-hearted adaptation, but it loses focus by trying to include too many elements of the real-life story.

The Unbreakable Boy could have benefited from a stronger infusion of Austin’s vitality.

The Unbreakable Boy works hard, very hard, to pull your heartstrings... But at a certain point it stops feeling inspirational and more like misery porn.

Especially at a moment like this, The Unbreakable Boy would’ve been better off left on Lionsgate’s servers.

The story also shows, with plodding deliberation, Scott’s descent into alcoholism — and it feels like the filmmakers have pulled a bait-and-switch on the audience, promising a unique inspirational story and delivering a much more mundane one.

It felt so toothless... Anything that doesn't serve [the father's story] gets underwritten and underplayed, to the detriment of the film.

It could've been so much more.