Should you ever watch this? Maybe if you’re Christian, but even then…
Should you watch this if it’s free? No.
Score: 0.5/5
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 109 minutes (~2 hours)
“Miracles From Heaven” is a Christian drama about a girl who gets an incurable disease, and her family’s reaction to the situation. It stars Jennifer Garner (Christy Beam), Kylie Rogers (Anna Beam), Martin Henderson (Kevin Beam), Eugenio Derbez (Dr Nurko), and Queen Latifah (Angela). It is rated PG.
Disclaimer: I’m Christian, but even I find that “Miracles from Heaven” lays it on thicker than any other Christian film. This makes it even more inaccessible if you’re not of the same faith. While it’s still a touching story of a family and their struggles against a situation that’s beyond their ability to cope, it leaves you with no resonance and no message. In fact, you end up feeling cheated by the film’s hackneyed ending, which gives you no meaningful takeaways whatsoever.
Highlights
Good atmosphere and feeling
There’s a distinct country feel in the film that helps you understand the context and importance of Anna’s (Kylie Rogers) disease. They’re from a small town where it’s a tight-knit community, and to them this is an issue that’s beyond their capabilities, as represented by their physical relocation for treatment. But Christy (Jennifer Garner) holds on to her more straightforward mindset, and Anna stills keeps her childlike perspective throughout the film. Their accents and dialogue also serve to support such an atmosphere, and this innocence is what makes the stakes larger. It’s not just a little girl, but the belief of a better world, that is at risk here.
Depiction of how religious folk can be unpleasant
Despite being a Christian film, it doesn’t shy away from depicting the less savoury parts of being in an organised religion. In fact, the cruel remarks from the rest of the unsympathetic worshippers could have come from any faith, and shows us that Christy and Anna are really alone in their predicament. It reinforces the theme of faith and dependence on a higher power, especially when those of this world cannot be relied on for support or aid in times of crisis.
Letdowns
Preachy
Some level of preaching is necessary since this is a Christian film, but the film really lays it on too thickly, to the extent of playing supposedly hopeful worship songs as part of their montage sequences. The problem is that from a story perspective, this does nothing. It doesn’t advance the plot, it doesn’t build character, and it doesn’t explore the themes. All that time spent on trying to give religious advice to Christy could have been replaced with a few sentences of dialogue that could have made for a snappier pace.
Corny
Everyone is a stereotype. The lines are cut from the thickest block of verbal cheese possible, and are hardly a reflection of how any normal human beings speak. The dialogue makes your hair stand with its forced diction and didactic tones. You wonder how the pastor manages to spout his lines without keeling over in sheer embarrassment. It might be a religious film set in a small town, but that’s no excuse for a thoroughly cheesy treatment.
Characters are irrelevant
The most unforgivable aspect of the film is that there is no need for the characters to be around at all. The plot is resolved with no action required from the protagonists. While this fits in with the theme of faith, it also means that nothing the characters did even mattered. They have absolutely no significance to the central conflict of the movie, and while we might have empathised with them, it turns out we didn’t have to. This results in an emotional con job, since we never had to worry about them in the first place.
“Miracles of Heaven” trades plot for theme, and the result is less than satisfying.
“Miracles of Heaven” opens in cinemas 21 April, 2016 (Thursday).
This review was also published on Yahoo!.
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