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The film begins in the early 1990s when Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson, star of the Prime Video action series “Reacher”) has a problem. Well, some problems. After his wife succumbs to a rare genetic disease, the working-class roofing contractor must raise his young daughters, one of whom, five-year-old Michelle (Emily Mitchell), is awaiting an organ donor as she battles the illness that has just taken his mother. Money is tight, health insurance is nonexistent, and medical bills are swallowing Ed whole, even as his mother (Nancy Travis) urges him to keep the faith.
On top of all that, a force of nature threatens to disrupt their lives. The name of this hurricane in the heart of the country is Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank), a local hairdresser with a big personality, who learns about the Schmitts’ plight in the newspaper while buying a six-pack the morning after a spree. “I think I’m supposed to give them money for the transplant,” she tells her skeptical best friend (Tamala Reneé Jones), who would prefer that Sharon devote her energy to attending the AA meetings she doesn’t believe in. that she needs.
Instead, Sharon inserts herself into the lives of these strangers and finds purpose while uniting her Louisville community. to help the family in difficulty. Not all heroes wear capes; some wear fringed leather jackets and shiny denim skirts and spruce up corporate executives to do their bidding with Southern charm and homemade muffins. Still, the film is smart enough to ask: To what extent are denial and self-interest at the root of Sharon’s altruism?
Ritchson is the biggest surprise in the movie. Sun-kissed, in faded jeans and work boots, sporting a mustache and a worn-out accent, he’s the anti-Reacher. A tender father to the ailing Michelle and her observant older sister Ashley (Skywalker Hughes), Ed is a man of few words, struggling to accept help despite the desperation in his stoic gaze. Director Jon Gunn is happy to provide glimpses of Ritchson re-shingling and hammering wood, if you’re into that sort of thing. But when Ed excuses himself so he can sob softly in his room, you want Ritchson to take on more emo roles.
Meanwhile, Swank crackles with energy, but lets the cracks show on nights when Sharon only has her regrets to keep her company. She’s the kind of subtly complex role that a great actor elevates, and here Swank proves that she’s not a two-time Oscar winner for nothing. He detects the avoidance in Sharon’s altruism long before she admits it to herself.
Despite Gunn’s painfully sound decisions, this latest film from producers Kingdom Story Company and Lionsgate, who teamed up on last year’s Christian hit “Jesus Revolution,” overall It folds in themes of faith with a light touch. But when the phone rings halfway through the film’s overlong 116 minutes, the clock starts ticking to take Michelle to the new liver she awaits several states away. During that deadly historic blizzard, “Ordinary Angels” shifts from family drama to action thriller.
Suddenly, metaphorical tests of faith stand in Ed’s way as if his skidding truck landed in a ditch. combination of a Hallmark movie and a Roland Emmerich disaster photo. And as friends, strangers, and even the local news station join the Herculean effort, clichés seeking greater meaning make this true story seem strangely contrived.
You could trace the increasingly clumsy and cloying denouement to the history of the project’s development. The script is credited to “The Edge of Seventeen” writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig and actress-writer Meg Tilly, who wrote it a decade ago as a vehicle for musician-actor Dave Matthews. Gunn and producer Jon Erwin, co-writers of religious films (“I Still Believe,” “American Underdog”), are credited with additional script material.
We understand that it took a village of “ordinary” angels to save a girl in real life. Behind the scenes, perhaps the film could have used less.
P. In the area’s cinemas. Contains thematic content, brief bloody images and smoking. 116 minutes.