Ordinary Angels tells the incredible true story of young Michelle Schmitt, whose life hangs in the balance after the loss of her mother. Directed by Jon Gunn (The Case for Christ), this uplifting drama shows how community and kindness can triumph even in life’s bleakest moments.
We’re introduced to Michelle (Emily Mitchell), a precocious five-year-old whose mother has just passed away from illness. Her father Ed (Alan Ritchson, Reacher) is utterly devastated and struggling to support Michelle and her sister while keeping his construction business afloat. To make matters worse, Michelle herself falls gravely ill, in urgent need of a liver transplant her family can scarcely afford.
Just when all seems lost, in walks Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank), a big-haired, big-hearted hairdresser who stumbles onto the family’s story and makes it her personal mission to save Michelle. Though brash and unconventional, Sharon becomes the Schmitts’ unrelenting champion. She strong-arms hospital execs into providing treatment and inspires their community to rally around the family in their hour of need.
During a raging 1994 blizzard that shut Kentucky down, Sharon helps mobilize an improvised airlift to get Michelle to surgery, overcoming impossible odds through sheer tenacity and neighborhood goodwill. It’s an incredible story of regular folks banding together, putting aside their differences, to give a little girl her shot at life. Ordinary Angels reminds us that even when all feels dark, heroes can emerge in the most unlikely places.
Finding Purpose Through Helping Others
We’re first introduced to Sharon as she’s stumbling home from yet another raucous night, her perfectly coiffed hair the only put-together thing about her. Sharon’s a bit of a mess – she drinks too much, pushes people away, and feels stuck in life with no direction. But leave it to two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank to make even a simmering trainwreck likeable.
Swank brings a captivating complexity to Sharon. There’s a hardness to her, a flinty shell built up after one too many hard knocks. But Swank lets us glimpse the softness beneath too – the vulnerability and basic human need to love and be loved. However prickly on the outside, Swank shows us Sharon’s good heart.
At first it’s unclear why Sharon becomes so fixated on helping the Schmitts. She learns about little Michelle’s plight by chance reading a newspaper headline. But something in the story calls to Sharon, offering her a chance to step up after a lifetime of messing up. Through helping this family, she can make a positive difference – can maybe even redeem herself.
What’s impressive is watching Swank trace Sharon’s subtle transformation. Slowly but surely, as Sharon advocates fiercely for the Schmitts, we see shards of selflessness replace self-pity. In a particularly affecting scene, Swank blurs Sharon’s face with tears and booze, laying bare her pain and inadequacies as a mother. But ultimately Swank shows us the resilience and inner resolve required for Sharon to overcome her demons.
By film’s end, Sharon earns not only the audience’s admiration but the Schmitts’ trust. In a quiet scene on the porch, Ed finally thanks Sharon for all she’s done. A simple gesture, but it signals Sharon has turned her life around and formed meaningful bonds – she’s found purpose and community. It’s a testament to Swank’s empathetic talents that this arc feels wholly earned and real. She makes Sharon not just an ordinary angel but an extraordinary one.
A Family Tested But Not Broken
At the heart of Ordinary Angels lies the Schmitt family – decent folks knocked sideways by life who must lean on each other to make it through the storm. As father Ed, Alan Ritchson (Reacher) gives arguably the film’s most grounded performance. We meet Ed just after the wrenching loss of his beloved wife, left alone to raise two young daughters. Ritchson conveys the character’s profound grief through subtle gestures – tightened jaws, averted eyes, the weight of responsibility visibly pressing down on his shoulders.
Yet Ed strives to remain strong for 5-year-old Michelle and 8-year-old Ashley. Ritchson shares tender, convincing chemistry with young actresses Emily Mitchell and Skywalker Hughes. We feel the father’s gentle protectiveness as he carries a sleeping Michelle to bed, the playful intimacy during giggling pillow fights. But there’s profound sadness too as his family continues unraveling despite Ed’s best efforts.
When Michelle falls direly ill, requiring a liver transplant the family can’t afford, Ed’s despair deepens. Ritchson makes us feel his simmering helplessness and crisis of faith. In one heartrending scene, he rails at the darkness about his wife’s exorbitant hospital bills that now threaten their daughter’s life too. Ritchson makes Ed’s anger blister but his love for family burn brighter still.
Ultimately this ordinary man summons the extraordinary strength needed to endure these trials. Combined with the impressive performances by Mitchell and Hughes, the Schmitts’ resilience and devotion as a family provide the emotional core that makes Angels fly.
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Finding Faith in Humanity
Unlike many faith-based films that feel preachy or heavy-handed, Ordinary Angels takes a more secular, subtle approach in exploring its religious themes. While the Schmitt family’s Christianity and involvement with their church community are made clear, director Jon Gunn doesn’t proselytize or hit us over the head with dogma.
The focus stays squarely on the Schmitts themselves – imperfect people who turn to faith more as a source of comfort amidst hardship rather than divine solutions to all life’s problems. When Ed rails at the darkness over his family’s misfortunes, he comes across not as a pious man expecting miracles but as an overwhelmed father who can’t understand why they’re being tested so mercilessly.
Yet his faith, though shaken, provides a moral framework for processing grief and summoning resilience. In lighter moments, the family’s gentle teasing and grace before meals reveal lives rooted in compassion. And their church community mobilizes when crisis hits – not through pious speeches but through concrete acts of generosity and aid.
Ultimately, Ordinary Angels sends the message that true goodness lies less in divine intervention than basic human decency. It’s the nurse who comes in early to prep Michelle for surgery, the neighbors who take up collections for her medical bills, the hair stylist who crashes a funeral just to help a stranger in need. In the film’s world, these are the real miracles – ordinary folks extending extraordinary kindness simply because it’s the right thing to do.
Capturing Authenticity
While obviously crafted to tug heartstrings, Ordinary Angels employs some smart directorial choices to ground its emotional stakes in reality. Visually, DP Maya Bankovic opts for a grittier, documentary-style look – bathed in shadowy, diffused lighting and tighter handheld shots. Within the Schmitt home, the barren walls and empty corners quietly reflect the absence of wife and mother. It’s a subtle way of making her loss constantly felt.
Editor Parker Adams incorporates lively, propulsive montages to cover large swaths of time and action – Sharon canvassing Louisville businesses for charity donations, for instance. This keys us into her indefatigable drive. But he also holds the camera long enough on quiet interactions, like Ed reading a tender note from his deceased wife, to maximize poignancy.
During the tension-filled third act as Michelle’s life hangs in the balance, director Jon Gunn does rely heavily on manipulative tactics – ominous music, heavy snow obscuring vision, the clichéd race against time. And admittedly, the one-obstacle-after-another climax pushes credibility as Sharon moves heaven and earth securing transport through a raging blizzard.
But the news footage intercut of that actual 1994 storm lends authenticity. However amped up, we’re reminded this is a real family who confronted seemingly insurmountable hardship, made it through intact by the grace and goodness of others. The technical flourishes ultimately serve the story – capturing truth within the triumph.
Shortcomings of Healthcare Highlighted
While more subtly woven into the narrative fabric, Ordinary Angels does offer sober commentary on the failings of the US healthcare system. We see the stark real-world effects as Ed helplessly watches medical bills pile up that threaten to bankrupt his family twice over – first taking his wife, now his daughter.
When Michelle falls ill shortly after her mom’s death, Ed laments that “we charged your mama so much to die that now you have to die too.” It’s a blistering indictment of a system that prioritizes profit margins over human costs. Without insurance, Ed and Michelle are repeatedly denied care, turned away due to insufficient funds when at their most vulnerable.
Yet the community rising up to overcome these systemic shortcomings delivers the feel-good counterpunch. Ordinary Angels makes a compelling case for universal healthcare not through didactic lectures but emotional storytelling. When Sharon helms fundraising drives to cover costs or strongarms administrators into waiving fees, we see grassroots advocacy in action. The film says society should take care of its own when individuals cannot, regardless of circumstances.
During that race against time through whiteout conditions, it’s average working-class folks who literally lift the transport vehicle out of snow banks, clearing the path for Michelle. Ordinary Angels ultimately celebrates social support systems in the absence of institutional ones – people pulling together, contributing what they can so that a little girl can have a fighting chance.
Signs of Light Amid Darkness
For all its flaws and contrivances, ultimately Ordinary Angels still manages to warm hearts when it matters most. Because nested in the maudlin histrionics lies a profoundly moving true story – of a family nearly swallowed by adversity, saved by the selfless actions of relative strangers. Swank’s stellar performance helps sell this as she takes a thinly-written character and instills genuine pathos – tracing Sharon’s subtle yet profound personal transformation.
And while the plot machinery creaks loudly at times, the central message cuts through: that human dignity and goodness will emerge to light even the bleakest of situations. It’s easy to dismiss the climactic set-piece as cloying and unrealistic. But knowing this near-miraculous effort to transport a dying little girl through blizzard conditions actually happened lends it legitimacy.
Ordinary Angels reminds us that real heroes dwell among us – not figures floating ethereally atop clouds but everyday folks driven by compassion to achieve extraordinary deeds. Sharon insists her Cupid-like matchmaking with the Schmitts was guided by something beyond coincidence – she was led by forces outside herself to save this family. But the film suggests divinity lies less in divine intervention than basic human decency.
The neighbors, nurses and friends weren’t compelled by heaven’s mandate. They simply did the right thing because that family needed them. And sometimes, that’s miracle enough. Ordinary Angels ultimately lives up to its title, a testament to the angels surrounding us if only we take time to notice.
The Review
Ordinary Angels
Ordinary Angels has its fair share of flaws - at times blatantly manipulative and laying sentiment on too thick. Yet its incredible true story still shines through thanks to strong performances and a profound message about the goodness inherent in communities banding together to lift up struggling members. It may rely on formulaic plot devices, but ultimately packs an emotional wallop.
PROS
- Strong lead performance by Hilary Swank
- Grounded work from Alan Ritchson
- Uplifting true story
- Explores flaws in healthcare system
- Nice message about goodness of community
CONS
- Heavy-handed emotional manipulation
- Predictable/formulaic story beats
- Underdeveloped supporting characters
- Pacing issues
