This is one of those movies where they take a true story, add dramatic flair to it, get one mid-range "name" actor to be in it, and sell it to the faith-based community. In this case, the movie is pretty good.
The story concerns John O'Leary, who at the beginning of the movie is just beginning his career as a motivational speaker. He's going to speak to a group of Girl Scouts, and he's so nervous that he throws up on his way into the meeting.
He gets it together though, and we finally learn why he's a speaker: He's recounting the story of how, when he was a kid, he was fooling around with gasoline and caused an explosion in his garage, which not only burned down the family home, but left hiim with burns over 100% of his body. Doctors gave him "maybe" a 10% chance of survival.
But survive he did, and this movie is the story of that survival, all the way from the five months he spent in the hospital to all the trials and challenges of learning to do virtually everything over again.
The movie is outfitted with the usual array of stock characters -- the parents, the siblings, and a sports announcer, played by the one "name" in the movie, William H. Macy, who befriends John in a most unlikely way. Maybe a little divine intervention there? We're not sure.
Which leads to the thing I liked most about this movie: It doesn't load on the "faith-based" content. Usually in movies of this type, various characters eventually talk about God and faith and healing and etc. in words and tones that you can just tell are scripted. Here, that's toned down to a great extent, although the scenes with the Mom and Dad are pretty badly acted, especially by Dad.
The best character in the movie, for my money, is "Nurse Roy," played by DeVon Franklin. He is the guy who's charged with not only taking care of and helping rehabilitate young John, but telling him the various hard truths he has to face. They don't show too much of the really hard-to-see stuff, but you see it in your mind's eye and that's enough.
The writing is a little on the cheesy side, but it's par for the course in this kind of film. Overall it's uplifting, occasionally funny and touching, and has a good message (especially for kids) without hammering you over the head with it. It's a crowd pleaser, if not a very deep one.
3 out of five stars from me.
The story concerns John O'Leary, who at the beginning of the movie is just beginning his career as a motivational speaker. He's going to speak to a group of Girl Scouts, and he's so nervous that he throws up on his way into the meeting.
He gets it together though, and we finally learn why he's a speaker: He's recounting the story of how, when he was a kid, he was fooling around with gasoline and caused an explosion in his garage, which not only burned down the family home, but left hiim with burns over 100% of his body. Doctors gave him "maybe" a 10% chance of survival.
But survive he did, and this movie is the story of that survival, all the way from the five months he spent in the hospital to all the trials and challenges of learning to do virtually everything over again.
The movie is outfitted with the usual array of stock characters -- the parents, the siblings, and a sports announcer, played by the one "name" in the movie, William H. Macy, who befriends John in a most unlikely way. Maybe a little divine intervention there? We're not sure.
Which leads to the thing I liked most about this movie: It doesn't load on the "faith-based" content. Usually in movies of this type, various characters eventually talk about God and faith and healing and etc. in words and tones that you can just tell are scripted. Here, that's toned down to a great extent, although the scenes with the Mom and Dad are pretty badly acted, especially by Dad.
The best character in the movie, for my money, is "Nurse Roy," played by DeVon Franklin. He is the guy who's charged with not only taking care of and helping rehabilitate young John, but telling him the various hard truths he has to face. They don't show too much of the really hard-to-see stuff, but you see it in your mind's eye and that's enough.
The writing is a little on the cheesy side, but it's par for the course in this kind of film. Overall it's uplifting, occasionally funny and touching, and has a good message (especially for kids) without hammering you over the head with it. It's a crowd pleaser, if not a very deep one.
3 out of five stars from me.