DIRECTOR: Patricia Riggen LEAD CAST: Jennifer
Garner, Kylie Rogers, Martin Henderson, John Carroll Lynch, Eugenio Derbez, Queen
Latifah SCREENWRITER:
Randy Brown PRODUCER: DeVon Franklin, T.D. Jakes, Joe Roth EDITOR: Emma Hickox GENRE: Drama CINEMATOGRAPHER: Checco Varese DISTRIBUTOR:
Columbia Pictures LOCATION: United States RUNNING TIME: 109
minutes
Technical
assessment: 3.5
Moral
assessment: 4
CINEMA
rating: PG13
Ten-year-old Annabel Beams (Kylie Rogers) is
diagnosed with an unusual disease in her digestive system. Undeterred by the distressing
prognosis of several doctors, Anna's mom, Christy (Jennifer Garner) is not
about to give up. From Texas, she flies Anna to Boston to see Dr. Nurko
(Eugenio Derbez), a renowned gastroenterologist at Boston Children's Hospital.
However, the lab tests draw out the same results—Anna’s life is threatened by a
disease that prevents her body from digesting food. Palliative care is all they are advised to give to Anna who
is then sent home. One day, while
playing with her sister up an old tree, Anna falls headlong into its hollowed
core. Not only does Anna survive
the fatal accident—she is also miraculously healed of her fatal illness.
Miracles
from Heaven is the latest release from AFFIRM Films, a
division of Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA). AFFIRM’s Mission Statement says it is “dedicated
to producing, acquiring, and marketing films which inspire, uplift, and
entertain audiences.” This
boutique division of Sony’s is experimenting with penetrating the mainstream
market with Christian films such as War
room, Moms’ night out, Heaven is for real, Courageous, and Soul surfer. Judging from its features played during the just concluded
Lenten season—Risen and Miracles from Heaven—AFFIRM seems to be
on the right track. While it is clear
that fact-based Miracles from Heaven
is designed for believers, director Patricia Riggen’s silver screen take of
Christy Beams’ 2015 memoir benefits much from the screen presence of Garner, a versatile
mainstream star playing the lead.
Garner’s portrayal of the agonizing mom is so convincing the viewer
would think she actually owns the pain; close-ups of her emoting are some of
the best shots in the movie.
Rogers as the tormented child is also good for her age—rendering pale by
comparison the two-dimensional performances of some of the adult supporting
actors.
The film is a rich mine of Christian precepts at
work in ordinary lives. It tries
to open the viewer’s eyes to the miracles we take for granted—like acts of
kindness we do for others, sharing one’s faith, etc. As a crossover film Miracles
from Heaven may come across as melodramatic, gooey, or even preachy to the
cynical, but to its target audience it is a welcome departure from the popular
menu of egocentric stories. There’s
an otherworldly sequence towards the end that many believers in NDE (near death
experience) will find familiar—when Anna is describing to her parents what took
place as she lay unconscious inside the tree trunk. It is brief but striking, capable of moving believers to
tears and arousing the curiosity of even dedicated skeptics. Here Anna admits (spoiler coming!) she
has known all along she would be healed.
How? In a manner we often
read about in the lives of Saints, but in Miracles
from Heaven the truth issues “from the mouth of babes”, so to speak. Why doubt? The witness of innocence is irrefutable.
