Film Review - Ordinary Angels
Hilary Swank elevates this predictable but undeniably heartfelt true story
Ordinary Angels is based on a true story. Not content with telling us with an opening caption, the film commits what must surely now be considered the cardinal sin of biopics and fact-based dramas: Showing us images and footage of the real people at the end. This is presumably to convince us how great the actors were impersonating their characters, rather than simply letting the performances do that. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I want this trend to stop. It is jarring and shatters the cinematic illusion — especially in this case, as the TV footage of the real climactic event is considerably less dramatic than what we’ve just seen recreated, taking place at night in a blizzard (fabricated), instead of daylight (real), for one thing. Filmmakers, for the love of all that is holy, you can make a drama or a documentary. Pick one and stick to it.
All that said, director Jon Gunn and screenwriters Meg Tilly and Kelly Fremon Craig make a decent stab at telling the undeniably moving true story of how, in 1994, hairdresser Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank); an alcoholic single mother with an estranged teenage son in Louisville, Kentucky, came to the aid of debt-ridden, widowed handyman Ed (Alan Ritchson) and his five-year-old daughter Michelle (Emily Mitchell), who desperately needed a liver transplant to survive. Ed is initially resistant to this won’t-take-no-for-an-answer extrovert stranger inserting herself into their lives, but Ed’s mother Barbara (Nancy Travis), insists this is God’s provision for them in their time of need. Ed reluctantly tolerates Sharon’s fundraising efforts for Michelle, slowly warming to her. But will Sharon’s struggle with her own demons throw a spanner in the works?
Anyone familiar with the true story will already know the answer. I didn’t, so found myself gradually absorbed in the drama, mainly due to Swank’s outstanding lead performance. She gives the film a heft I suspect it would otherwise lack. I also sense a certain amount of admittedly appropriate dramatic contrivance in the final act, but it’s all very predictable, in both events and character arcs.
As a UK viewer, I confess that despite my usual disdain for political axe-grinding, I wanted a more damning indictment of the US “healthcare” system in the film, beyond mere incredulous looks when characters flat-broke through no fault of their own are presented with insanely high medical bills. Perhaps this wasn’t the right context for a properly scathing condemnation of the insurance lobbies that brainwash so many Americans into thinking that state healthcare is somehow the first step to a communist dictatorship. Still, for all the talk of miracles in the film, I couldn’t help thinking a real miracle would be for the evangelical Christian audiences, at which this film is primarily aimed, to be inspired by this film to use their considerable lobbying power for something genuinely Christlike in the US: Reform the health system.
All that aside, you’d have to be made of stone not to be moved by Ordinary Angels. It’s an undeniably uplifting tale that aims for triumph of community spirit feel-good factor in the style of It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). Obviously, it doesn’t scale the illustrious heights of Frank Capra’s classic, though it’s worth watching nonetheless, despite flaws. But please, enough with the here-are-the-real-people postscript images. This tiresome cliché needs to be taken into the woods and shot. Filmmakers, if you want to convey additional information before the end credits, stop shattering the illusion and please stick to captions.
(Originally published at Medium.)
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American health care sucks- I'm glad I live in Canada...
At least the actors are trying to get the characters right. There have been biopics in the past where that clearly wasn't the case.