{"id":49,"date":"2024-06-15T16:57:47","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T16:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=49"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:08:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:08:06","slug":"ordinary-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/06\/15\/ordinary-angels\/","title":{"rendered":"Ordinary Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ordinary Angels<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 118 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (thematic content, brief bloody images)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jon Gunn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Meg Tilly and Kelly Fremon Craig\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Pancho Burgos-Goizueta\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Maya Bankovic\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 23, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Hilary Swank, Alan Ritchson, Nancy Travis, Tamala Jones, Emily Mitchell, Skywalker Hughes, Drew Powell, Dempsey Bryk, Amy Acker, Stephanie Sy, Nancy Sorel. \u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0I learned a new acronym while prepping for my review of Ordinary Angels<\/strong>. It\u2019s BOATS which stands for Based On A True Story. Cool. It makes my job just a little easier. As long as I use all caps, nobody will think I\u2019ve lost my mind when talking about films based on true events.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Right from the start, we know where the BOATS drama Ordinary Angels<\/strong> is going and that everything will turn out alright. They wouldn\u2019t have made a movie if the story didn\u2019t have a happy ending. Generally speaking, dramas with depressing outcomes don\u2019t go over with audiences. Look what happened with Pay It Forward. I know a few people who are still angry over the fate of Haley Joel Osment\u2019s character in the 2000 drama. ANYWAY, that\u2019s not an issue in Ordinary Angels<\/strong>. It has a happy ending. Yes, I\u2019m breaking my rule about dropping spoilers. It\u2019s okay though; this movie is more about the journey than the final destination.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0It\u2019s been said that angels walk among us. Nobody ever said they\u2019re all saints. That\u2019s certainly the case with Sharon Stevens (Swank, Million Dollar Baby), a hairdresser and salon co-owner who likes to drink and whoop it up when she\u2019s off the clock. No sense mincing words, she\u2019s a mess. A longtime alcoholic, her resentful adult son (Bryk, TV\u2019s Willow) wants nothing to do with her and her bff\/business partner Rose (Jones, Booty Call) is beyond concerned. She makes Sharon attend an AA meeting, but that goes as well as one might expect. She walks out and heads straight to the nearest store to buy a six pack. That\u2019s when the universe intervenes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0While waiting in line, Sharon spots a headline in the local paper about a seriously ill little girl whose mother just died. It hits her right where she lives. She crashes the funeral where she strikes up a conversation with the girl Michelle (Mitchell, Women Talking) and her older sister Ashley (Hughes, Joe Pickett). The grieving dad Ed (Ritchson, Fast X) is understandably uncomfortable with his girls talking to this stranger who just showed up out of nowhere.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Sharon decides she just has to help this family. They\u2019re in over their heads in debt with the mounting hospital bills and medication costs. We\u2019re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. There\u2019s no way they\u2019ll ever be able to pay it off. Ed\u2019s job as an independent contractor barely helps him make ends meet. Sharon shows up at Ed\u2019s front door one night with an envelope stuffed with cash from a fundraiser she held at the salon. Ed\u2019s reluctant to accept it; his mother Barbara (Travis, So I Married an Axe Murderer) invites her to join them for dinner. It\u2019s the least she can do.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Sharon says it best herself when she tells Ed \u201cI\u2019m good at plenty of things, but taking no for an answer isn\u2019t one of them.\u201d She goes on to prove it by taking over the family\u2019s finances and heading a campaign to raise money for a liver transplant for Michelle. If she doesn\u2019t have it, she\u2019ll die. Along the way, Sharon and the girls grow close with their dad quietly seethes with resentment over not being able to take care of his family himself.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Director Jon Gunn (Do You Believe?) keeps the tension high in the third act when Michelle\u2019s transplant is threatened by the major blizzard\/cold spell that brought the country to a standstill in January 1994. Even though we know how it\u2019s going to turn out, we still worry for the little girl. After all we\u2019ve been through with her and the other major characters, the last thing we want is for her not to make it to the hospital in time. Gunn crushes it emotionally, leaning heavily into tried-and-true tropes like the inevitable scene where the whole community shows up to lend a hand. You know it\u2019s coming, but it still gets you.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Two-time Oscar winner Swank shows she\u2019s still got game as Sharon, a tenacious lady who plays hard to get rid of. She\u2019s in it for the long haul, but why? Is it pure altruism or is she trying to fix what\u2019s broken about herself? Obviously, it\u2019s both, but she has to address the latter before she can effectively do the former. Thankfully, the screenplay by Kelly Fremon Craig and Meg Tilly (yes, that Meg Tilly!) never loses sight of this. Neither does Swank. She\u2019s really good in Ordinary Angels <\/strong>as is Ritchson as Ed, a good father coping with loss and the prospect of another. He\u2019s a man on autopilot, a guy trying not to let his emotions get in the way of taking care of his girls. The two little girls do a fine job too. They\u2019re both cute without being too cloying. Travis, an actress I really like, acquits herself nicely as the tough, loving grandmother who takes a liking to Sharon.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Yes, Ordinary Angels<\/strong> is collection of melodrama clich\u00e9s. Yes, it sometimes plays like a Hallmark movie. Yes, it\u2019s sort of a religious film with references to God, miracles and faith (or loss thereof). None of that bothers me. Hey, I\u2019m a sucker for sappy dramas about sick kids and damaged people in need of healing. Gunn could have tightened things up a bit, but Ordinary Angels<\/strong> is a good movie for the most part. It\u2019s one of the better movies I\u2019ve seen this month.<\/p>\r\n

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