Movie Review: The Miracle Club
One-liner: solid performances, immersive storytelling and powerful themes anchor this blandly amusing coming-of-age drama.
The Miracle Club is a small miracle in and of itself, having taken almost 20 years to get off the ground. In spite of Maggie Smith’s involvement and reputation, it was finally given the green light by Chris Curling. The producer behind Tolstoy drama, The Last Station, Curling much like the sport isn’t put off by niche, slow-moving dramas. While this story about four Irish women may have got more headway if it had been about the little-known sport in the tradition of Cool Runnings, they find themselves on a journey of healing… quite literally.
Headed from their small Irish town to Lourdes in France, a place of miracles where the cold waters run deep, The Miracle Club digs its heels in along with its plucky band of characters. An entertaining and stirring jaunt, The Miracle Club features a strong cast in Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Agnes O’Casey with Stephen Rea and Maggie Smith.
Acting veteran Maggie Smith has developed a solid reputation when it comes to her film choices. So much so that you can almost be certain that you’ll enjoy the characters and story on offer. Thankfully, this is the case with The Miracle Club, a coming-of-age drama that follows women of several generations who embark on a pilgrimage of healing to Lourdes in France. Each struggling with health, winning a trip to bathe in the icy cold waters of Lourdes becomes so much more than just wishful thinking as their faith, hope, love and compassion is put to the test.
The Miracle Club delivers what you’ve come to expect from its diligent and determined ensemble. Linney operates from a bittersweet space as Chrissie, Bates has a dominant and strong presence as Eileen, Smith commands slow-boiling charm as Lily and O’Casey is spirited as young mother, Dolly. It’s a noble effort from the entire cast, aiming to ground the film in the life and times of Ballygar under Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s thoughtful direction.
“Do you see what I see?”
Having led fairly typical small town lives, given the patriarchal context of 1967, the trip signals a turning point for each of them as an “outcast” enters the fray. The disruption throws everyone off kilter, forced to re-evaluate their feelings around her untimely excommunication and return. Taken from a domestic setting, the liberation from home, family and husbands has a Shirley Valentine undertone as the group catch a bus to Lourdes. The armchair travel appeal of the journey from Ireland to France has its place, foregrounded by immersive production design and values to transport you to another time and head space.
Primarily a drama centred on the shakeup, this touching movie intersperses levity to counterbalance the weight of its deeper themes. From a taste of freedom from domestic strife, to battling groupthink and overcoming prejudice, this is a layered film with a lightness of touch. The movie poster would have you believe this movie is more geared towards comedy. Yet, the comedy is subtle to the point of misrepresentation, making this coming-of-age drama gently amusing rather than hilarious.
Better known for drama, director Thaddeus O’Sullivan mines the script for complex emotion and relational politics even if you don’t rally behind any one of the characters in spite of sharp performances. Speaking to the power of reconciliation and gratitude, its quiet optimism is refreshing, even if its vanilla ambition doesn’t strike the right balance between comedy and pathos.
The bottom line: Spirited