{"id":95117,"date":"2024-02-20T22:46:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T22:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/?p=2039278"},"modified":"2024-02-20T22:46:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T22:46:10","slug":"heartbreaking-ordinary-angels-upends-faith-based-rulebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/20\/heartbreaking-ordinary-angels-upends-faith-based-rulebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Heartbreaking \u2018Ordinary Angels\u2019 Upends Faith-Based Rulebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story behind \u201cOrdinary Angels\u201d is almost too perfect for a major motion picture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A woman attempting to rebuild a life stained by alcoholism rallies a community to save a girl\u2019s life, battling a mountain of medical bills in the process.<\/p>\n

In some hands \u201cOrdinary Angels\u201d would be a treacly, faith-based misfire.<\/p>\n

Director Jon Gunn<\/a> (“The Case for Christ”) had other ideas. His take on the material is faith-kissed but filled with rough, ungainly edges. That makes the story\u2019s lump-in-your-throat moments, and there are a good half dozen or so, pop off the screen without 3D goggles.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

Alan Ritchson stars as Ed Schmitt, a widower faced with another heart-breaking reality. His young daughter Michelle (Emily Mitchell) is very sick, and without a liver transplant she may not see her pre-teen years.<\/p>\n

The medical bills are suffocating him, and there\u2019s little hope a transplant can come in time to save his little \u201cbutterfly.\u201d<\/p>\n

By luck or fate, Sharon (Hilary Swank) hears about Ed’s plight. She\u2019s a hard-drinkin\u2019 gal who knows she needs something, anything, to turn her life around. She thinks she finds it in the Schmitt family, steering her formidable charm to do more than raise money for their medical bills.<\/p>\n

She wills their small town to fight for Michelle\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n

You think you know where \u201cAngels\u201d is going at every turn and more times than not you\u2019ll be right. Still, the screenplay by Meg Tilly (yes, that Meg Tilly<\/a>) and Kelly Fremon Craig (“The Edge of Seventeen”) is shrewd enough to lean into the formula while making it feel fresh.<\/p>\n

RELATED: IS ‘FATHER STU’ THE BEST FAITH-BASED DRAMA YET?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Sharon\u2019s intrusion into the Schmitt family\u2019s life is all-encompassing. Ed welcomes her support, but he\u2019s old school enough to know she\u2019s bullying past some serious boundaries.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear her efforts aren\u2019t just the work of a good Samaritan. It\u2019s a reclamation project, a way to make amends for being a distracted mother to her own, now-adult child.<\/p>\n

Ritchson’s Ed is curt and stoic, refusing to accept help at times and making sure he\u2019s protecting his family for Sharon\u2019s hard-charging efforts. He can seem ungrateful, but it\u2019s easy to see how bewildered he is processing so many pulls on his heart.<\/p>\n

His child. His late wife. The home that marks his ties to both his late wife and a carefree past long since gone.<\/p>\n

Ritchson underplays it like a heartland dad of yore. It\u2019s a sneaky, powerful performance.<\/p>\n

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#AboutLastNight<\/a> \"\u2728\"\u201dThis is a film that reminds us of the good in life.\u201d Hilary Swank at the New York premiere of her film \u201cORDINARY ANGELS.\u201d <\/p>\n

Based on a true story, #OrdinaryAngelsMovie<\/a> centers on Sharon (Hilary Swank), a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/BvRmYOiwhF<\/a><\/p>\n

— Critics Choice Awards (@CriticsChoice) February 20, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n