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The Miracle Club
Gorgeous scenery, compelling direction, and three superb performances lead performances do make the 2023 melodrama The Miracle Club worth a look.
The setting is a small community right outside of Dublin called Ballygar in the year 1967. The death of a woman named Maureen has brought together her childhood friends Lily and Eileen and their friend Dolly, who have just won tickets to a trip to Lourdes where the three women are seeking their own personal medical miracles: Lily hopes to have her injured leg repaired; Eileen is looking for a cure for her breast cancer, and Dolly is hoping that the journey will provide speech for her mute son. Also journeying to Lourdes is Maureen's daughter, Chrissie, who returns to Ireland for the first time in 40 years and is motivated to make the trip in order to reconcile with Lily and Eileen.
The screenplay for what initially seems to be a pretty simple story turns out to have layers that we don't see coming at all. Though we're not really sure why, neither Lily nor Eileen's families want them making this pilgrimage to Lourdes and have threatened not to be there when they return. More importantly, once the ladies arrive in Lourdes, backstory explaining Chrissie's 40 year absence from Ballygar comes to light, a story with enough pain and angst to fill a Eugene O'Neill play and the completely different ways that Lily and Eileen view what happened. We're intrigued as it seems that Lily wants to let bygones by bygones but Eileen cannot let go what happened 40 years ago.
The real joy here is watching the remarkable work director Thaddeus O'Sullivan does in establishing this extremely appealing canvas. Of course, Ireland is always a welcome location for film, automatically establishing an enchanting canvas on which the story can unfold that becomes even more lavish as the story moves to Lourdes. Every shot of the film establishing a location looks like a postcard.
And the performances he gets from three of the best actresses in the business will distract from the occasional slow spot. Laura Linney is crisp and vulnerable as Chrissie, who initially seems to be the villain of the piece but the character's thaw is believable. Kathy Bates lights up the screen as the explosive Eileen, a rich performance that even allows Bates to sing for the first time since Annie back in 1999. As expected, the divine Maggie Smith steals the show as the sad and sweet Lily, allowing us to see all the wisdom and grace in every wrinkle on her face and making us want anything Lily wants. It's not for all tastes, but the three actresses did make it worth my time.
Gorgeous scenery, compelling direction, and three superb performances lead performances do make the 2023 melodrama The Miracle Club worth a look.
The setting is a small community right outside of Dublin called Ballygar in the year 1967. The death of a woman named Maureen has brought together her childhood friends Lily and Eileen and their friend Dolly, who have just won tickets to a trip to Lourdes where the three women are seeking their own personal medical miracles: Lily hopes to have her injured leg repaired; Eileen is looking for a cure for her breast cancer, and Dolly is hoping that the journey will provide speech for her mute son. Also journeying to Lourdes is Maureen's daughter, Chrissie, who returns to Ireland for the first time in 40 years and is motivated to make the trip in order to reconcile with Lily and Eileen.
The screenplay for what initially seems to be a pretty simple story turns out to have layers that we don't see coming at all. Though we're not really sure why, neither Lily nor Eileen's families want them making this pilgrimage to Lourdes and have threatened not to be there when they return. More importantly, once the ladies arrive in Lourdes, backstory explaining Chrissie's 40 year absence from Ballygar comes to light, a story with enough pain and angst to fill a Eugene O'Neill play and the completely different ways that Lily and Eileen view what happened. We're intrigued as it seems that Lily wants to let bygones by bygones but Eileen cannot let go what happened 40 years ago.
The real joy here is watching the remarkable work director Thaddeus O'Sullivan does in establishing this extremely appealing canvas. Of course, Ireland is always a welcome location for film, automatically establishing an enchanting canvas on which the story can unfold that becomes even more lavish as the story moves to Lourdes. Every shot of the film establishing a location looks like a postcard.
And the performances he gets from three of the best actresses in the business will distract from the occasional slow spot. Laura Linney is crisp and vulnerable as Chrissie, who initially seems to be the villain of the piece but the character's thaw is believable. Kathy Bates lights up the screen as the explosive Eileen, a rich performance that even allows Bates to sing for the first time since Annie back in 1999. As expected, the divine Maggie Smith steals the show as the sad and sweet Lily, allowing us to see all the wisdom and grace in every wrinkle on her face and making us want anything Lily wants. It's not for all tastes, but the three actresses did make it worth my time.