The Unbreakable Boy: A Review

THE UNBREAKABLE BOY

Well, they tried. 

That was how I felt after finishing The Unbreakable Boy. This story aims at the heart. Like our title character at the end, his aim fell a bit short. Still, at least he tried.

Narrated mostly in voiceover by our title character, we hear from young Richard Austin LaRette (Jacob Laval). Richard goes primarily by either Auz or AuzMan. He is a very, very chipper young man. He fills us with almost miniscule details about all sorts of things. There is a reason for that.

AuzMan has two conditions. The first is that he is autistic. The second is osteogenesis imperfecta, which is also known as brittle bone disease. His OI is inherited from his mother, Teresa (Meghann Fahy). Teresa met AuzMan's father Scott (Zachary Levi) and in a whirlwind romance he knocked her up thirteen years prior. Teresa did not inform him about her own OI until later in their relationship. She also had not informed him that she had been married twice before.

For his part, Richard does not seem to follow that he is slipping into being an alcoholic. He has his own secret in that he still talks to his imaginary friend Joe (Drew Powell). All this AuzMan informs us in his own chipper way. Scott does his best to bond with Austin, but his efforts keep flopping. He keeps struggling to stop accidents that injure AuzMan. Austin's autism also blocks Scott's connection to his firstborn. The bottle and the bars are his only sources of respite apart from talking to Joe.

AuzMan continues through life cheerful and cheerfully oblivious to things for the most part. He is forced to stay at a psychiatric hospital when in an uncharacteristic fit attempts to strangle his younger brother Logan (Gavin Warren). He also has his down moments, but for the most part everyone around him seems charmed by the AuzMan. Everyone except Scott.

Things come to a head in the LaRette's marriage when Scott drives his sons back home from a New Year's Eve party in a state of intoxication. He does manage to not kill anyone, but this is the last straw for Teresa. With some guidance from his parents Dick and Marcia (Todd Terry and Patricia Heaton), Scott finally goes to AA meetings. He still talks to Joe, but he also starts bonding with Pastor Rick (Peter Facinelli). Rick, like Scott, is a recovering alcoholic. At last, Scott can bond with the AuzMan and the rest of his family. We know that because at the end of The Unbreakable Boy, it is Scott and not Austin who is doing the voiceover. 

Voiceovers can rise or fall based on a variety of factors. There is the voice itself. There is the dialogue. There is the delivery. I do not know if, in the long run, it was a good decision by writer/director Jon Gunn to have Austin be our narrator. I understand the reasoning behind that. Austin is supposed to be the unbreakable boy. However, the end result seems a bit too cutesy for its own good. 

Again, I understand that we are meant to get this innocent child's viewpoint. However, when Austin tells us that his father is talking to his imaginary friend, the end result is not charming. It makes Scott look genuinely bonkers. This "talking to Joe" business goes on throughout the film. In fact, we are informed at the end that Scott still talks to Joe. The conceit is carried to what I think is an extreme level. Several times do we see "Joe" with Scott. He is with him in the delivery room. He is with him when he is moving a bed. Near the end, Scott asks Joe if he is God. The Unbreakable Boy starts showing Joe with a quasi-divine light, then cuts to Joe laughing and saying that he absolutely was not God.

I think one of my issues with The Unbreakable Boy is that it wants to have its cake and eat it too. This is especially true when it comes to promoting The Unbreakable Boy as a "faith-based film". Yes, you have a pastor character. Yes, Teresa does say that the family will go to church. However, The Unbreakable Boy barely touches on any faith-based elements. Scott has no "come to Jesus" moment. They attend church exactly once. That scene seems created just to show how uncomfortable and ill-prepared Scott is as a father. It also allows for a chance to see Austin run around the sanctuary in his underwear while Scott is desperately trying to both keep an eye on him and change Logan's diapers. 

It is a curious thing how The Unbreakable Boy oddly seems to forget about the IO and concentrate more on the autism as the film goes on. I think that it could also be argued that The Unbreakable Boy is not Austin. It is Scott. AuzMan may be our narrator, but Scott is our focus. A lot of The Unbreakable Boy centers around Scott's struggles both as a father and alcoholic. 

That is not necessarily a bad thing given that Zachary Levi handled the role rather well. For the most part, Levi made Scott into a well-meaning but floundering man. We see this throughout the film, especially whenever he struggles to understand and/or bond with Austin. Levi makes Scott someone who wants to do the right thing but can't figure out how. 

The rest of the cast is a bit hit-or-miss. On the positive side is Patricia Heaton as Scott's mother. She has a surprisingly good moment of comedy when she is raging about Scott having knocked up Teresa. We mostly hear her off-camera in her rant about Scott's poor choices. The running commentary and dish-smashing is not mean or terrifying but more frustrated. Drew Powell also did well as Joe. Granted, he was a figment of Scott's imagination. However, Powell brought a full range of emotions as the fictional Joe. He could be supportive or sarcastic depending on the moment. 

On the negative side is Jacob Laval as Austin. I figure that he gave the performance that director Gunn wanted him to give. It is, however, unfortunate that The Unbreakable Boy makes Austin sometimes look like an unhinged robot rather than an autistic individual. I understand that school bully Tyler (Pilot Bunch) was meant to have manipulated the well-meaning Tyler. He does so by starting the "You can't handle the truth!" speech from A Few Good Men. That is all the prompting that Austin needs before he starts quoting the entire speech verbatim in class. However, the effect does not have the full impact that I think it could have. Something about it just did not sit well with me. When the school principal welcomes him back, she announces to the school assembly, "Everyone's favorite mascot, AUZMAN!". 

Again, something about that just did not sit right with me. 

As a side note, Austin's voiceover points out that Scott has an imaginary friend like Tyler Durgan from Fight Club. I am not sure that Fight Club would be appropriate for any thirteen-year-old. Yet, I digress. 

Peter Facinelli, who was one of the film's producers, has very little to add as Pastor Rick. No suggestion of spiritual guidance. No suggestion of a spiritual life. All we learned is that, like Scott LaRette, Pastor Rick is a recovering alcoholic. Meghann Fahy as Teresa at times was overly dramatic.

I did not end up hating The Unbreakable Boy. It was fine. For me, it fell just a bit short of the crowd-pleaser that it was aiming to be. 

DECISION: C-