DAVID ADAMS finds an experienced ensemble make ‘The Miracle Club’ an authentic experience…
The Miracle Club (AU – PG/US – PG-13)
In a word: Rewarding
Casting was always going to be key to the success or failure of putting The Miracle Club on screen and giving the likes of Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates and Laura Linney key roles in the film has proven a wise move.
Set in 1967, the film follows the story of a group of women in the small hardscrabble Irish community of Ballagar who are hoping to win a pilgrimage to the Catholic shrine of Lourdes in France where each of them, in their own, way, is seeking some sort of miracle. As the film opens, things take a turn when we find that one of their number has died and her estranged daughter Chrissie (played by Linney), now a sophisticated resident of the US, returns to the home she abandoned for the first time in decades to attend her mother’s funeral.
“Casting was always going to be key to the success or failure of putting The Miracle Club on screen and giving the likes of Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates and Laura Linney key roles in the film has proven a wise move.”
Past pains and secrets are unearthed from the very opening scenes and that only intensfies as local priest Father Dermot Byrne (Mark O’Halloran) then subsequently leads a group, expectations high, on their pilgrimage.
Director Thaddeus O’Sullivan and the three screenwriters – Jimmy Smallhorne, Timothy Prager and Joshua D Maurer – wisely doesn’t rush the relevations. Rather this is a slow – and often incomplete – unfolding as we’re shown how the past lives of these ladies – in parlicular Lily Fox (played by Smith), Eileen Dunne (played by Bates) and young mother Dolly Hennessy (Agnes O’Casey) whose is looking for a miracle for her son, as well as, of course, Chrissie Ahearn – inform their knotted present.
The film reconstructs the period in which it’s set with an eye to detail and the casting excellence, exemplified in the depth of experience the ladies bring to their roles, carries across the entire production – Stephen Rea puts in a great show as Eileen’s harried husband Frank.
As for the miracles? There’s disppointment, of course, but they all come out of their experience changed even if what took place was not what they expected. It’s a small steps forward sort of result for all which brings a sense of authenticity to what’s a well-put together production.
Love, forgiveness and coming to terms with the past, however painful, are all themes at the heart of this emotionally rewarding tale.
