Diretor: Thaddeus O’Sullivan
Writers: Joshua D. Maurer, Timothy Prager and Jimmy Smallhorne
Starring: Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, Agnes O’Casey and Laura Linney
What would you do for a miracle?
Four women lived in Ballygar, Ireland. All of them hope to gain a miracle from going on the pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes.
Viewers in all range of religious belief will grow to understand why each woman seeks a miracle. Lily (Maggie Smith) lost her son to the sea when he was nineteen, and has grown old with Eileen (Kathy Bates) who fears a lump on her breast while living with an ungrateful husband in a household with six children. Agnes, a young mother and friends to both Lily and Eileen, fears she has wronged her son and has caused his muteness.
With hope for winning, the three women sing together at their church’s talent contest as ‘The Miracles.’ And in one way or another, by perhaps even a miracle, all three women and Agnes’s son are able to attend the pilgrimage.
The hiccup? Chrissie, whose mother’s recent passing brought her back to Ballygar after 40 years strikes tension within ‘The Miracles.’ Unfortunately, Lily and Eileen are less than grateful to be joined by their late friend’s daughter. Audiences must ride the tension of a hidden past to discover if these women will be able to forgive themselves and their pasts.
Academy Award Winners Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates, and Academy Award Nominee Laura Linney, captivate audiences once again in their performances as three women with an intertwined and sorrowful past. Actress Agnes O’Casey stuns with her own performance as a young mother, and doubles her role as an open-minded force that aids in bridging the relationship between Lily, Eileen and Chrissie.
The roles that each actress delves into acknowledges the struggles of motherhood. This created an overarching plotline about the emotional depths of families that each actress carried out with precision. Lily is a grieving mother, Eileen an overworked mother, Agnes a self-doubting mother, and Chrissie an at-the-time fearful, young mother.
Director Thaddeus O’Sullivan ensured that each character had a close-up and moment to shine, working with the raw emotion of the written plot and acting to connect audiences in an intimate manner to the role of motherhood. Other captivating moments came from the frame of the women’s eyes, holding reflections of their surroundings. One particularly well-done scene included the reflection of a cross in Lily’s eyes as she declared her pilgrimage to Lourdes a necessary one.
Each frame kept audiences enraptured with the screen to not miss any meaning within this heartfelt comedy film.
Leaving many audiences to believe in the “strength to go on when there is no miracle.”
Plot: ★★★★☆ 4/5
Cinematography: ★★★★☆ 4/5
Character Arc(s): ★★★★☆ 4/5
