Review: In the uplifting yet mundane ‘The Unbreakable Boy,’ a dad finally wises up

First, the good news about “The Unbreakable Boy,” a family drama based on the 2014 memoir by Scott LeRette: Zachary Levi is finally acting his age. After a few high-profile childlike roles in the “Shazam” movies and “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” it’s a relief to see him as an adult. The film is also a belated confirmation of Meghann Fahy’s absolutely bulletproof star power. That had already been confirmed with her turns in “The White Lotus,” “The Perfect Couple” and “The Bold Type” (if you were paying attention), but “The Unbreakable Boy” is a bit of a curious case: a relic from a period just before her breakout.

Shot in the winter of 2020, the film was originally slated for release in March 2022. Why it’s been aging on a shelf at Lionsgate for three years is a mystery, but the faith-based film finally hits theaters with the story of the LeRette family and their specific, if not unique, challenges about raising a child, Austin (Jacob Laval), born with both autism and a genetic brittle-bone disease.

“The Unbreakable Boy” is adapted and directed by Jon Gunn, who has tackled other faith-based films drawn from true stories, having directed “Ordinary Angels” and “The Case for Christ,” and produced “Jesus Revolution” and “I Still Believe.” His stock-in-trade is lightly inspirational life-affirming tales about people overcoming distinct but relatable challenges, often through the help of their own faith or religious community. The stories are never all that extraordinary or shocking, but more quotidian, community-based and family-oriented, and “The Unbreakable Boy” is just that.

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The film starts in medias res, with Scott (Levi) getting drunk at a New Year’s Eve bash at the country club and then driving home with his two boys, Logan (Gavin Warren) and Austin, in the car. The numerous narrative devices that the film employs — including an elliptical framing structure, Austin’s voice-over narration and even an imaginary friend — are entirely too cute by half. They’re used to try to make this rather straightforward and, sorry to say, unremarkable story seem as if it’s more interesting than it actually is.

In “The Unbreakable Boy,” Scott is a distracted, easily overwhelmed dad, often resulting in Austin breaking a bone (there’s a running tally of injuries). Much of the film is concerned with Scott struggling to manage his son’s medical issues and free spirit, using alcohol to cope. Eventually, with the help of his church, Alcoholics Anonymous and his wife, Teresa (Fahy), Scott learns to shift his mindset in order to not just accept Austin but live his life more like his son: fully present and unencumbered by social expectations. It’s a nice sentiment, if not especially revelatory.

Gunn directs the film in the aesthetic of a nighttime family TV drama. It’s serviceable, invisible, and he adds a few stylistic quirks, like the broken-bone tally in a childish font or a few animated sequences in order to represent how Austin “sees” the world. Levi and Fahy don’t have much chemistry, though the story of their rapid courtship doesn’t allow much time for any. Their big admission is that they “might” love each other.

Levi plays Scott as somewhat smarmy and disingenuous — it’s hard to feel for this guy when he seems absolutely clueless about his own kids. Fahy carries the film in her supporting role, an acting imbalance that seems weirdly apt for this story: the supportive, capable wife sidelined in favor of showcasing the inept husband getting himself together and presenting it as meaningful or poignant. This might be significant to the LeRette family, but 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?

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.