Ordinary Angels (2024)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Faith-based audiences have a new selection to check out at the multiplex. This one however sacrifices evangelizing with a message of bringing everyone together. More of this please.
After a shaky opening 20-25 minutes, Hilary Swank and Alan Ritchson develop a great on-screen partnership and they work very well together.
The movie has a big heart, is earnest in its approach and has a formidable screenplay written by Meg Tilly and Kelly Fremon Craig.
NO
Honestly, this may not go far enough into the faith-based movie formula for some audiences.
Someone could argue that this is a Lifetime or Hallmark movie with a theatrical budget, and I would be hard-pressed to push back. It’s better than that though. Promise.
As much as I appreciate the movie, the film is directed and produced by people who have previously made the polarizing, divisive types of movies referenced below. Proceed with caution I suppose.
OUR REVIEW
For someone who has had, shall we say, a rather complicated relationship with God, the church, and organized religion his entire life, faith-based films have, in all honesty, struck me personally as hollow and judgmental. Much like how some religions do not have open doors to non-believers or accept those on a journey in questioning faith, the majority of “Christian films” in the marketplace feel as if there is no interest in speaking to an audience that does not devoutly adhere to the same beliefs evangelized to their audience. Watching movies like God’s Not Dead, Left Behind, or Heaven is for Real are recent examples of films which have felt dismissive, limiting, harsh and scolding.
I suppose it would be easy to dismiss faith-based films as movies simply “not for me,” a decision no different than how one determines horror or sci-fi or documentaries or movies with subtitles as likewise “not for them.” For me that’s too easy though. I want to understand the appeal. I want to believe that rather than badgering an audience, or soothing and coddling those who already believe in the message being given, there is space for the devout and the questioning to share a cinematic, faith-based experience, and to do so side-by-side.
Christian films, faith-based cinema - whatever branding you want to place on the genre - can mean big business. If last year’s Sound of Freedom’s significant box office success (though perhaps tainted by reports that distributor Angel Studios bought out empty theaters to inflate numbers) failed to drive this point home, then perhaps the numbers pulled in by the theatrical release of episodes from Season 4 of the webseries The Chosen further illustrates the financial windfall these movies can generate. That’s why I revisit this genre periodically. In my mind, it is simply too big to dismiss.
Which brings me to Ordinary Angels, a film that gives me optimism that perhaps concepts of faith and belief can exist in an inviting, non-judgmental and less forceful manner moving forward. Questioning a belief in God and having faith are not mutually exclusive. Ordinary Angels takes a faith-based story and makes it accessible to a wider audience. Though flawed, the film is one of the better faith-based films I have seen and here is hoping that the audiences who have embraced The Chosen and Sound of Freedom also embrace director Jon Gunn’s newest film.
Based on a true story from the 1990s, in all honesty, the opening minutes of this movie feel slight and resemble a shameless heartstring-puller of a story. Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson) is a roofer and father of two girls, 8 and 6, who have lost their mother tragically to a rare disease. Still reeling from the trauma and tragedy this loss has had on his family, his youngest daughter Michelle (Emily Mitchell) is diagnosed with the same condition that led to her mother’s passing and which forced older sister Ashley (Skywalker Hughes) to have a similar transplant when she was younger.
When the family’s story hits the newspapers, a local hairdresser named Sharon (Hilary Swank) is compelled to help. After an awkward interaction with Ed and his daughters, she convinces her business partner Rose (Tamala Jones) to host a 24-hour haircut benefit event. They raise more than $3,000, unbeknownst to the family, and Sharon delivers it. Ed’s mother (Nancy Travis) is as grateful as her son is in struggling to accept the generosity.
In the first 20-25 minutes, this feels like a made-for-cable movie, light on depth, overdressed in cliche and surface-level melodrama. Gunn’s film, written by Oscar-nominated actor and novelist Meg Tilly and writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig (Are You There God? It’s Me. Margaret.), soon begins to lift off and builds layers to a story not about a woman making herself feel better by saving a family in need. Rather, we have a film that becomes about kindness, giving, and authentic generosity.
In the opening scenes, Swank plays Sharon as a drunk, wobbling hybrid of Sandra Bullock’s character in The Blind Side and Julia Roberts’ portrayal of Erin Brockovich. A two-time Oscar winner, Swank teeters on caricature until a scene humanizes her in bonding with Ed’s daughters. Later, we recognize the impact that Sharon’s resistance to accepting that she is an alcoholic has had on her life, even as Rose tries to intercede as her best friend becomes almost obsessive in helping the Schmitt family through their hard times. “This is addict behavior!” Rose tells Sharon. She’s not entirely wrong.
Ordinary Angels is a movie that improves the longer you stay with it. A testament to Swank and Ritchson, as well as Gunn’s steering of the story, the movie becomes a solid dramatic achievement. Sharon does come off overbearing, especially in how she embeds squarely into Ed’s life. But her only purpose is to try and help. There are no romantic underpinnings or complicated emotional baggage to sort through. Thankfully, Ed never needs to give the “I don’t want a new wife” speech. The kids don’t feel like Sharon is trying to be a replacement for their mom either.
At some point, I often surmise how a movie looks and sounds. In that regard, there’s nothing remarkable here. Instead, Ordinary Angels works because it shows us something that feels absent in today’s world - namely people buckling down and helping others in need.
Here, Sharon has no expectations of reciprocity and Ed is not in a financial position to do anything, buried in hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills and other debt. Ultimately, a kind, well-intentioned person lent a hand to someone in need and a lifelong friendship was made. That connection solved a problem. That selfless nature literally saved and changed lives.
In my praise, I also don’t want to be hyperbolic here. This is a movie that is easy to figure out. It might even bore some viewers while bringing others to tears. Refreshingly, instead of chastising its audience or being belligerently fixated in delivering a combative message, Gunn’s film reminds us that everyone should have a place at the table, all helping hands are indeed welcome, and it truly costs nothing to be kind.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Hilary Swank, Alan Ritchson, Nancy Travis, Tamala Jones, Emily Mitchell, Skywalker Hughes, Amy Acker, Drew Powell, Dempsey Bryk
Director: Jon Gunn
Written by: Kelly Fremon Craig (screenplay); Meg Tilly (writer)
Release Date: February 23, 2024
Lionsgate