‘Ordinary Angels’ Movie Review: Hilary Swank Is Very Persuasive In Life-Affirming True Story
Photo from Lionsgate
From Jeremy Kibler
Released under the Erwin brothers’ faith-based production company Kingdom Story Company, Ordinary Angels is less Christian propaganda than it is a persuasively told true story. Not just about keeping faith, it’s even more so about human kindness, a community rallying together with an average Erin Brockovich type leading the charge. It sounds mawkish beyond belief, and while it is simplistic in places, Ordinary Angels is always sincere and never preachy.
In Louisville, Kentucky, 1993, blue-collar roofer and girl dad Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson) has lost his wife Theresa (Amy Acker) to the rare Wegener’s disease. Now, he’s forced to raise his two daughters, Ashley (Skywalker Hughes), and 5-year-old Michelle (Emily Mitchell), who’s just been diagnosed with Biliary Atresia, a congenital liver disease where a liver transplant is her only hope. To make matters worse, Ed doesn’t have health insurance, and the emergency room bills just keep piling up. An unlikely angel on Earth emerges in the form of hairdresser Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank), a bleary-eyed alcoholic in denial. When Sharon sees the newspaper headline about the Schmitt family’s circumstances, she decides to help and makes this her purpose.
Lighting up every scene with a gaudy, sparkly array of skirts and heels, the ever-reliable Hilary Swank is a force as Sharon. A real go-getter, she is brash, pushy, and no-nonsense, and yet not without a big heart, and Swank cannily makes the character arc work. Initially, the viewer just has to take a leap of faith that Sharon finds it in her heart that she’s supposed to help the Schmitt family pay off their debt in hospital bills and begin a fundraiser out of her shop. We do eventually come to see what makes Sharon tick, and her flawed nature gives the character enough of an edge to not be merely a saintly figure.
Alan Ritchson (TV’s Reacher) taps into his more dramatic chops with a more sensitive, understated performance as man-of-few-words Ed. Tamala Jones is wonderful as Sharon’s fed-up best friend and colleague, and Nancy Travis (who’s always nice to see) lends solid support as Ed’s mother.
Director Jon Gunn, working from a screenplay by actress Meg Tilly and Kelly Fremon Craig (Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.), has an inherently powerful story on his hands, but it does follow a pretty traditional path where Sharon helps the family as much as they help her. The deck gets so stacked against the Schmitts, as well as for Sharon, that one knows it has to all work out. Anxiety-ridden as it is, the airlift climax in the snow-covered parking lot of a church during 1994’s Kentucky Blizzard is ultimately uplifting. And, by that time already, any emotionally manipulative flourish (even the butterfly symbolism) can be forgiven because we’re rooting for Michelle to get the transplant. A final beat with Sharon’s estranged son, however, may be too pat for its own good.
Moving as all heck, Ordinary Angels proves to be a faith-affirming and life-affirming film in a cynical world. Sometimes, a well-intentioned and passionately well-acted one is more than enough.
Rating: 3/5
Ordinary Angels hits theaters on February 23, 2024.
