ORDINARY ANGELS - Mark Reviews Movies

Ordinary Angels, Lionsgate

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | February 22, 2024

Here's a story so affecting, so uplifting, and so hopeful about the basic goodness of people that Ordinary Angels doesn't have to do much more than to simply tell it with sincerity and some degree of skill. That's exactly what director Jon Gunn does, giving us a genuinely effective tearjerker—one that is, under the circumstances, thankfully reaching for tears of joy—by way of the optimistic humanity of its characters. These are real people—and not simply because the story is based on a true one—in ordinary but trying situations, doing the best they can with assorted flaws and shortcomings. Isn't that all that's needed for good drama?

This film, written by Kelly Fremon Craig and Meg Tilly, does reach a bit deeper than that, which is slightly unnecessary when dealing with a tale so superficially strong but is, nonetheless, worthy of some appreciation. We become invested in these lives, not only because the situation at its core is so heartbreaking and recognizable, but also because these characters are developed with consideration and performed with such authenticity.

The two at the heart of the story are Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson) and Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank), who are brought together by tragedy and the latter's spontaneous thought that maybe she can be of some help. The opening scene—two of them, actually, with a seamless transition that's like a punch to the gut and too subtle to call manipulative—has Ed and his wife (played by Amy Acker) welcoming their second daughter into the world, and in a flash, it's five years later. Ed is sitting next to another hospital bed, where his wife is on the immediate verge of death.

Afterwards, his situation is dire. The medical bills have mounted, and his job as an independent roofer isn't pulling in nearly enough to come close to paying them. He's too stubborn to ask anyone for help, even resenting his mother (played by Nancy Travis) a bit for helping with the kids and other household work, but if things continue this way, the consequences will be even tougher.

Worse, things will continue this way, because Ed's younger daughter Michelle (Emily Mitchell) has a rare medical condition that can only be fixed with a liver transplant. In the meantime, she's slowly dying, and the only temporary solution is blood transfusions that keep adding to Ed's debt. It's not as if the hospital is going to continue any kind of treatment, either, if those bills aren't paid.

Meanwhile, Sharon, who owns a hair salon in the area, lives a hard-drinking life, and her friend Rose (Tamala Jones) knows she's an alcoholic who needs some help. Sharon is also stubborn, though, and the trauma of being raised by an alcoholic mother and the fact of her adult son having estranged himself from her are too deep to just stop the only thing that keeps the pain muted.

The unlikely bond between these two begins when Sharon spots a local newspaper story about the death of Ed's wife and Michelle's health struggles. She decides to attend the wife's funeral, and even though her introduction to the family is awkward, Sharon starts raising money for the girl's medical expenses. Once she starts something, she won't stop, either, no matter how much Ed insists he doesn't need or particularly want anyone to do for his family what he can't do himself.

The main reason this material works here—beyond just how inherently moving it is—is how the focus steadfastly remains on these two characters, as they butt heads over their obstinance and gradually form a relationship of mutual respect and understanding. Our sympathy for them, then, goes beyond the difficulties of their respective situations, because they aren't mere pawns in some melodramatic take on such a tale. Ed says he would do anything for his family, but his resistance to Sharon's aid tells another story about a man too proud for his own—and, potentially, his family's—good.

Sharon is no altruistic do-gooder, either. She needs to do this for herself, in an attempt to repent for what she sees as too many failures to count and to fulfill some of the addictive nature of her personality after giving up drinking, as much as for Ed and his family.

The filmmakers don't judge any of this, of course, because it has too much compassion for these two, what they're going through, and how much they want to do the right thing, regardless of the motives behind or the self-made obstacles to doing so. Beyond that, there are the performances from Swank and Ritchson, which create believable people existing in the midst of these challenges, instead of just figures going through the motions of what the story presents to them. Ritchson's work is particularly poignant, as he brings a real emotional vulnerability that belies his hulking frame and Ed's resilience to saying or even showing how he actually feels.

This film succeeds, then, on the terms it sets and has the wisdom to back up its central thesis—that anyone can give and deserves help from others—by way of characters as troubled as they are sympathetic. Ordinary Angels builds toward a climax that is, on the surface, a race against the clock under circumstances that become worse by the minute. If not for some archival footage showing us that at least the basics of this event really happened, it might be difficult to believe. It did happen, though, and let's take that as some proof of the essential goodness of people with a bit of hope—and, yes, a few well-earned tears.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products