Breakthrough

Breakthrough (2019) is a faith-based drama from director Roxann Dawson that you can watch online on iFILM. On a freezing January day, fourteen-year-old John drops through the ice of a Missouri lake and stays underwater for close to fifteen minutes.

Pulled out with no pulse, he's rushed to the hospital, where a team works on him long past the point most would quit. They're ready to call it — then his mother, Joyce, walks in praying aloud and refuses to let them stop. What follows leaves the doctors without an explanation. From there the film is less about the miracle itself and more about how a family, a medical staff and a church community ride out John's return and his slow recovery. Chrissy Metz plays Joyce, Josh Lucas is the father, Topher Grace the young pastor, and Dennis Haysbert the lead physician.

The script comes from Joyce Smith's own book, and its real subject is a mother's stubborn refusal to accept the prognosis. It's openly religious and never coy about its faith, which is worth knowing going in. A good fit if you want a warm family weeper built on a story that's hard to believe. Stream Breakthrough (2019) online on iFILM.