MOVIE INFO VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES:
Based on a remarkable true story, ORDINARY ANGELS centers on Sharon Steves (Hilary Swank), a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky who discovers a renewed sense of purpose when she meets Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson), a widower working hard to make ends meet for his two daughters. With his youngest daughter waiting for a liver transplant, Sharon sets her mind to helping the family and will move mountains to do it. What unfolds is the inspiring tale of faith, everyday miracles, and ordinary angels.Content collapsed.
REVIEW:
Ordinary Angels is a five handkerchief weepie based on a true life drama about the efforts of one woman to help a family with a sick little girl. Hilary Swank plays the do-gooder- Sharon where the obsession for this girl becomes a sort of replacement for her alcohol addiction. She clears mountains of paperwork, bills and even the winter snow in the finale to help little Michelle (Emily Mitchell) to get her to the hospital where her new liver awaits surgical installation. There is some actual documentary footage tacked onto the end credits verifying everything happened more or less as depicted.
The director Jon Gunn never shies away from showing Sharon’s addiction and her flaws. Some of it is sublimation, some self denial, some finding a cause greater than herself to dedicate herself to, to give her meaning. It’s an interesting character portrayal made great by Swank’s totally committed acting. Ordinary Angels shows the nuts and bolts humanity behind the most impressive human made miracles.
Still, it’s Alan Ritchson’s performance as the overwhelmed father enduring unbearable tragedy, grief and disbelief that someone is willing to fight harder to keep his daughter alive that really grounds Ordinary Angels in struggling humanity. He is a tender father, a man of few words, who struggles to accept the help Sharon offers because he feels the head of the family should be doing that. He shows how hard it is to believe in miracles beyond what the self can achieve, the humanity that derives from the greatest act of kindness and self sacrifice- how God can even use the most flawed among us for his greater good.
Ordinary Angels generally folds in its Christian themes with a light touch. Even the thriller like ending to get Michelle to the hospital in time becomes examples of faith in struggle, the power of the community to rally for one individual in dire need. In a way it becomes true because everyone needs it to be true, and that belief makes it history, and part of God’s truth in action. Faith will accept the contrivance of struggle.
Ordinary Angels gets a 4.0/5 or an A-.
CREDITS:
Directed by
Screenplay by
Produced by
- Jon Berg
- Roy Lee
- Dave Matthews
- Johnathan Dorfman
- Sarah Johnson
- David Beal
- Kevin Downes
- Jon Erwin
- Andrew Erwin
Starring
Cinematography
Edited by
Parker Adams
Music by
Pancho Burgos-Goizueta
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release date
- February 23, 2024
Running time
117 minutes[1]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$12–13 million
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