“Soul on Fire” is a touching faith-based bio-pic that pushes all the right emotional buttons. It rarely misses a beat and never misses a button.

It’s about a child burned nearly to a crisp who survives through perseverance and a vast passing parade of physical and emotional supporters — from siblings and parents to doctors and nurses through orderlies on to the near-divine intervention of baseball legend Jack Buck.

An able cast and the director of “Soul Surfer,” one of the best faith-based films ever, and screenwriter of a “National Treasure” sequel and John Singleton’s “Rosewood” make this conventional inspirational drama play and pay off almost every step of the way.

And when the emotion of seeing a child suffer, admiring the persistence of caregivers and the kindness of strangers isn’t enough, the filmmakers know there are still more buttons they can push.

Cue “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey. The Cardinals ae playing a home game? Cue “Centerfield” by John Fogerty.

The kid needs his faith to go on living and make it through piano lessons? Let’s pick out “Amazing Grace” on the ivories.

Yes, it’s manipulative. But you can’t fault a tear jerker for doing precisely what its designed to do.

John O’Leary (James McKracken) was an avid Cardinals fan, just nine years old, when he had that accident every parent warns every little boy caught playing with matches about. He blows up himself and burns the family house down.

This traumatic scene is marked by almost shocking realism, by heroics by his siblings, and what sounds like melodramatic child dialogue ginned up by a guy who grew up to become a famous motivational speaker.

“I want to die! Please kill me!”

Nobody does. And despite the “one percent” survival chances he’s given, with burns covering 100 percent of his body, a team of doctors (Iyad Hajjaj plays the surgeon) and nurses — including physical therapy Nurse Roy (DeVon Franklin) treat little John and his family is taught how to communicate with him until his burned lungs and voice box recover.

Losing his fingers, despairing of his lack of mobility and vastly diminished future, John doesn’t want to go on. But his story gets around St. Louis. And when Baseball Hall of Fame announcer Jack Buck (Willim H. Macy) gets word, he goes for a visit and a little pep talk.

That becomes the first of many. The Cardinals get in the World Series, and there’s Jack Buck, offering words of encouragement over the air for “the kid” with long odds of ever recovering.

Those “long odds” follow John out of childhood and into college, where the badly-scarred teen (Joel Courtney) becomes everybody’s favorite drinking buddy. He’d love to ask out the pretty physical therapy major Beth (Masey McLain), but “Why would any girl like that want me?”

And as the narrative jumps back and forth in time, we see shy, stammering and guilt-ridden John as a successful adult building contractor urged to speak to a Girl Scout troop and overcome that latest obstacle to become a famous public speaker and published motivational memoirist.

If you hire Sean McNamara as your director and cast soulful John Corbett (“Northern Exposure,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) as the forgiving, loving and supportive dad, your faith-based movie can’t go far wrong. And the Emmy winning, Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Macy may not have the sonorous voice of Jack Buck, but he took the role and gives the world a chance to pick up on the man’s generosity and humanity.

We never learn why Buck took an interest in this kid, providing him motivation all through his life. I wonder if the WWII vet had seen things or met burn victims in the Army. But one thing is certain, Macy gives a humble, hardscrabble humanity to a broadcaster most of us remember for some of the greatest calls in American baseball history. This one’s my favorite. Well, maybe this one. And then this, one of the greatest (CBS Radio) calls in baseball history.

Buck’s granddaughter plays a nurse in the hospital scenes.

“Soul on Fire” makes its faith-based messaging land lightly, leaning more into the “gratitude” that surviving and getting somewhere with his life gave him. The “big mistake” that often triggers religious fervor in such narratives is only slowly accepted. The love story could have been conventional, but it takes a few turns.

John caused his injuries himself. He burned the house down and could have killed siblings or the family dog. He takes a while to turn that into a college drinking story and a longer while to make it something he’d talk about and use to try and make others as grateful as he is.

Former child actor Courtney (“The Kissing Booth”) ably gets across the imperfect student who sees his imperfections in manhood. The rest of the cast is good, but one and all are lifted in their scenes with Corbett and Macy, who give the picture its heart.

Gregory Poirier’s script may jump through time periods — 1987, 1998, 2007 and beyond — but McNamara makes it all make sense.

As I said above, the film is manipulative and in some ways leans more towards the loved/hated sports dramedy “Rudy” than many people would like. Motivational speakers are big self-mythologizers, and some are pretty transparent about it.

But Corbett, Macy, Courtney and McNamara ensure that when we break out the hankies, we’re awfully grateful that they give us good reason to.

Rating: PG, graphic burn injury, binge drinking

Cast: Joel Courtney, Masey McLain, DeVon Franklin, Stephanie Szostak, James McKracken, John Corbett and William H. Macy.

Credits: Directed by Sean McNamara, scripted Gregory Poirier, based on a memoir by John O’Leary. A Sony/Affirm Films release.

Running time: 1:52