MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN explores issues of family and faith while telling the true tale of Texan Christy Beam (played by Jennifer Garner) that begins when her 10-year old daughter Anna (Kylie Rogers) develops horrible stomach pain. The child is initially misdiagnosed, and when her disorder is discovered to be an incurable, and ultimately fatal, digestive disease, Christy finds herself a fierce advocate for Anna’s health. She travels to Boston frequently to work with Dr. Nirko (Eugenio Derbez), apparently the only specialist in the country who can help. Back home, Christy’s husband Kevin (Martin Henderson) does his best to hold down the fort with their other two daughters while dealing with impending financial stress. After a freak accident involving a hollow tree and a glimpse of God and Heaven, a miracle unfolds that leaves doctors confounded and the Beam’s small-town community inspired.
MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN is as decent and square as it sounds. No profanity. No sex. No violence. That’s its hook. Unpretentious and plainspoken, it knows its target Christian audience well. Adapted from the memoir by Christy Beam, MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN is no religious fringe event. It’s from a major studio (Sony), with an Oscar-nominated costar (Queen Latifa), and adapted for the screen by TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE screenwriter Randy Brown. MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN has lots of sweet, sunny, Norman Rockwell-inspired imagery of small-town life and wholesome family high jinx. What it lacks, at least on its surface, is dramatic tension. There’s no real villain, no conflict and no resolution outside of the big miracle – just 90 minutes of sad scenes in which Anna suffers while her family reacts with tears of sorrow followed by 20 minutes of tears of happiness. There are no real plot twists and not much more to the unchallenging story other than how Anna’s revelations affect the other residents of their small Texas town. MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN has something of a Made-for-TV feel about it, unsurprising considering the subject matter and PG rating and feels padded at 114 minutes – I’m not sure we needed to take two side trips to the Boston Aquarium.
That said, I found more than enough positives in MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN to recommend it. The movie works, but not in mysterious ways. Its heart is certainly in the right place and it illustrate Christy’s conflict with great emotion and drama. It’s a heartbreaking (and heartwarming) story that shifts into the right gears when the script demands it. Director Patricia Riggens (THE 33) makes some wise choices, such as the subtle way she reenacts young Anna’s visit to heaven after her accident with the tree, cleverly echoing her reaction to Monet’s paintings of flowers on an earlier trip to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
The hardest thing for any parent is watching your child suffer and knowing there is nothing you can do to help, and MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN is at its best when capturing that gut-wrenching dilemma. Jennifer Garner does an excellent job illustrating Christy Beam’s frustrations with clueless doctors and judgmental neighbors and the turmoil she and her husband endure. There’s a convincing desperation in Garner’s hardworking performance that elevates the vanilla narrative from a choir-preaching faith-based film to something more relatable. Queen Latifa shows up in full sass mode as a waitress who takes Christy and Anna on a tour of Boston. The character is superfluous to the story, but Ms Latifa’s job is to provide levity to the downbeat proceedings and she’s pitch perfect.
Like 2014’s similar HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN is not a movie for cynics. They’ll find it naïve and superficial and may be suspicious of the Beam family’s motives and personal gain (something tells me their financial situation is looking pretty rosy these days). But all the critic eye-rolling and snark likely to greet the film from some quarters won’t matter to its target Christian audience. They will sleep better at night believing God saved this child and leave the theater grinning from ear to ear. Not just because it will reaffirm their faith but also because it has an emotional story, an adorable little girl at its center (who almost dies!), and some good ol’ country church singin’. It serves as a reminder of the great love of family – something not always well-captured on film – and has a comforting message about what is important in our lives. It may or may not convert skeptics, but if they wander into the multiplex they may find MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN a nicely photographed and well-acted sermon that goes down easy. Miraculous indeed.
4 of 5 Stars
