{"id":112874,"date":"2025-10-10T07:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T07:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/112874\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T07:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T07:29:07","slug":"faith-based-john-oleary-biopic-plays-familiar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/112874\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith-Based John O’Leary Biopic Plays Familiar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn 2011, director Sean McNamara<\/a>, a Disney and Nickelodeon veteran with an iffy feature track record (see: \u201cBratz\u201d) had a sleeper success with the inspirational biopic \u201cSoul Surfer.\u201d Its mix of sun, surf, spirituality and teen angst, dramatizing a real-life Hawaiian competitor\u2019s rebound after losing her arm to a shark attack, remains a favorite among audiences for faith-based entertainment. After some less well-received efforts, including last year\u2019s biopic \u201cReagan,\u201d McNamara is back on old terrain with \u201cSoul on Fire<\/a>,\u201d centered on a young protagonist struggling after his own near-fatal accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBased on John O\u2019Leary\u2019s 2016 memoir-slash-self-help tome \u201cOn Fire,\u201d this earnest effort will have likewise appeal to viewers seeking a family-friendly \u201ctrue story\u201d with an upbeat message about overcoming adversity. However, the sports angle isn\u2019t so potent this time; while Bethany Hamilton really was a pro surfer, O\u2019Leary is a lifelong baseball fan, which provides a rather less compelling sub-theme. Beyond that, this \u201cSoul\u201d is smoothly crafted, hitting the right notes of conflict and bravery. But it\u2019s also bland to a fault at times, and feels unnecessarily drawn-out at nearly two hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGregory Poirier\u2019s screenplay does maintain a steady level of interest, in part by veering from a strictly chronological structure. We start off with the adult O\u2019Leary (Joel Courtney) working in home construction, when he\u2019s asked by a woman who\u2019s heard about his past if he\u2019d talk about it to the Girl Scout troop she den-mothers. Even addressing a few preadolescents is more public speaking than he can handle comfortably, but when he\u2019s asked a question, he flashes back 20 years to the traumatic event that caused him to be invited.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAt age nine (played by James McCracken), he was just a baseball-obsessed boy in 1987 suburban St. Louis, one of six children to parents Denny (John Corbett<\/a>) and Susan (Stephanie Szostak). One day, O\u2019Leary is impressed by some bigger kids playing with gasoline and matches. No one says, \u201cDon\u2019t try this at home,\u201d so our junior hero does just that \u2014 creating an explosion that ends up destroying the entire house. He\u2019s the only person seriously hurt, albeit badly, with burns covering 100% of his body. He is not expected to survive. But he does, thanks in part to the loyal support of his family, a particularly dedicated male nurse (DeVon Franklin) and famous local sportscaster Jack Buck (William H. Macy), who takes a special interest in the starstruck lad.<\/p>\n

\n\tReleased from the hospital after five months, John has major adjustments to make \u2014 including the use of prosthetic hands, since his severely damaged fingers required amputation. He gets by,\u00a0becoming a popular figure at college by being the frat bro most likely to out-drink everyone else. But his self-confidence remains shaky. He clicks with fellow student Beth (Masey McLain), yet is too shy to ask her out until they\u2019re almost too well-established as \u201cjust friends.\u201d Later on, John overcomes more obstacles, eventually becoming a professional public speaker. Nonetheless, he confesses to his father (who\u2019s by then dealing with Parkinson\u2019s disease) that, despite everything, deep down he can still feel \u201clike a fraud\u2026an emotional coward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs likable a performer as Courtney is, his wide-eyed hero doesn\u2019t really have the depth to make that inner doubt vivid. The variable supporting players \u2014 some of whom have been much better elsewhere \u2014 make their characters seem even more rotely drawn.\u00a0Both script and direction stay on a pleasant surface level, frequently goosed by a soundtrack full of rather on-the-nose golden oldies by Smash Mouth, Neil Diamond, Journey, John Fogerty, Paul Stookey and others, plus newer Christian pop cuts. At least they have more personality than Mark Isham\u2019s original score, which is among his less inspired efforts.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe intended stirring impact is a bit stunted by the lack of complexity and nuance in telling John\u2019s journey. Inevitable glimpses of real-life O\u2019Leary under the final credits make \u201cSoul on Fire\u201d retroactively feel like an extended promotion for his books and lectures. Movies like this also frequently seem to contradict their ostensible emphasis on internal faith by having the protagonist\u2019s triumphant moments invariably accompanied by cheering crowds \u2014 a fantasy of piety and selflessness that somehow also grants a starry spotlight. This competently crafted, if pedestrian, feel-good exercise will probably deliver the desired uplift for viewers who want their \u201ctrue stories\u201d played out via cozily familiar narrative beats. But the effect is a little too generic to be especially persuasive for anyone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2011, director Sean McNamara, a Disney and Nickelodeon veteran with an iffy feature track record (see: \u201cBratz\u201d)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[18,117,19,17,7668,327,69832,69833],"class_list":{"0":"post-112874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-john-corbett","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-sean-mcnamara","15":"tag-soul-on-fire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}