By Peter Malone
Starring Jennifer Garner, Kylie Rogers, Martin Henderson, Queen Latifah, Eugenio Derbez, John Carroll Lynch. Directed by Patricia Riggen. 109 minutes. Rated PG (Mild themes. Some upsetting scenes)
It is said that, after the commercial success of The Passion of the Christ, American faith films received a boost of confidence, moving to bigger budgets and campaigns for wider and mainstream distribution, both in the United States and beyond. Miracles from Heaven is one of these films.
These faith films divide opinion and comment. American secular reviews of Miracles from Heaven have been quite damning, not ready to give much credit, saying they are too pious, too sentimental and too unreal. Particularly in this case, as in the previous Heaven is for Real, the events, the healings and miracles seem too difficult to swallow.
On the other hand, for instance on the Internet Movie Database, practically all the comments are from an audience with a faith background and who found this film not only good entertainment, but a reinforcement of faith and values.
Miracles from Heaven is based on a true story and a book by the mother of the family, Christy Beam (Jennifer Garner). She and her husband, Kevin (Martin Henderson), and their three daughters are a typical, middle-class American family. He is a vet who also works some of the land; she is a mother, and the family are members of the local evangelical church led by a very genial pastor, John Carroll Lynch. Clearly, this is a wholesome story in its perspective and treatment.
When the middle daughter (Kylie Rogers) experiences stomach and throat trouble, is in continual pain, and diagnoses assert there is nothing basically wrong with her, Christy becomes very angry with the doctors and demands further tests. These lead to the discovery that the girl has a severe intestinal problem. While the family prays, and the Christian community is supportive, there is a severe scene where two parish ladies accost Christy, saying that either she and the family, or even the daughter, must have sinned in some way for the daughter to be so ill.
Christy loses her sense of faith.
In a sense, this is a story about family and how it deals with an illness and contact with a world specialist (Eugenio Derbez) in Boston with an enormous waiting list. Determined, Christy takes her daughter to Boston and, providentially, gets an appointment. The doctor is cast in the vein of such medical characters as Patch Adams, having a way with children and adults, cheerful and joking even when the prognosis indicates terminal illness.
There is a miracle in this film, not as one might anticipate, but a healing.
One of the interesting aspects of presenting miracles on screen is the response of different faith communities towards these. For more evangelical communities, this is an encounter with God, and intervention in people’s lives. Catholics need to remember that miracles are required for any progress on stages for beatification and canonisation and that, at any one time around the world, many Catholics are praying for potential saints and their recognition.
Some physical comments are made during the film around the issue of spontaneous reconstruction. On the other hand, the little girl saying she had an encounter with God could be seen as the equivalent of a dream – and there is a great deal of thinking and writing on the effect of dreams on the human psyche and body.
The film is very American, unashamed of sentiment, prayer and faith. In the final credits, there are photos and video footage of the family several years after the miraculous experience – the young daughter herself, large as life, on the screen as a testimony to her faith.
Sony. Released 24 March 2016.
Peter Malone MSC is an associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting.
From pages 28 from Issue 2: ‘Family: What does it mean in 2016?’ of The Record Magazine