by Samuel Nichols, Contributing Writer
Cynicism is a disease. 2020s America has no more miracles. People do not believe that something extraordinary can happen out of absolutely nothing. The curse of having the world at your fingertips with social media, constant news coverage, and influencers and celebrities getting in your faces every second they can is that no one believes in just goodness for goodness’ sake anymore. Someone always has ulterior motives, or they only do charity to improve their PR. But just choosing to do something just extraordinarily kind for no reason has been uncommon today. Ordinary Angels tells an uncommon story.
Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson) has been beaten up by life. He lost his wife at a young age and he works a hard manual labor job. But the money he earns is nowhere near enough to take care of his two girls, one of whom has a terrible liver condition which requires constant hospital trips and medications. But he has a guardian angel. While at his wife’s funeral, he meets Sharon Stevens (Hillary Swank), a local hairdresser battling the demons of alcoholism. Taken by the the Schmitt family struggles, she starts doing everything she can to help them. From fundraisers, speaking with insurance companies, coordinating emergency trips to the hospital, to even watching the kids, Sharon becomes an important part of the Schmitt family. But will all of it be for naught in the end if Ed’s daughter can’t get the treatment she needs?
While Ordinary Angels is not an explicitly Christian movie, it’s produced by Kingdom Story Company, which has made other movies like I Still Believe, American Underdog, and Jesus Revolution. All are based off true stories about Christian figures like Kurt Warner and Jeremy Camp, but the consistency in quality is not as good as one would hope. To be honest with you, I have such a history with Christian movies I watched growing up that I’m predisposed to expect them to be poorly made and written without any subtext or subtly.
So you can imagine my surprise when I found Ordinary Angels to be well-made, with strong characters I could relate to. While the story is true, it isn’t written in such an overly gushy and emotional way that its power is overdone. The characters are real and not saints either. We get to see Ed struggle through his pride and find a way to balance humility with his incredible work ethic. He will give anything for his daughters, but seeing Ritchson be humble enough to take help from strangers is an even more moving thing. Props to Ritchson for showing off some range when he’s mostly known for playing muscle heads.
Swank has all the charm and wit we can expect from an Oscar winner. She’s on the poster for a reason: to help sell the movie. She’s also a big comedic relief point, as she has that southern charm down, and cracks all the jokes one can stomach in this flick.
One of the big praises I can give this movie is the strength of the child actors. Skywalker Hughes and Emily Mitchell do very well with their roles as the Schmitt daughters. Both have challenging emotional moments that require emotional vulnerability, and others where they need to be charismatic and adorable, and they deliver in big ways. I am hoping they are able to grow from their success here.
Ordinary Angels is a step in a positive direction for Christian films. The message is not jammed down the viewer’s throat, and the stakes are brought up enough for us to feel real empathy for the people on screen in front of us. True stories can do that to you, and our everyday angels can help keep us going.
Rating: Liked It
Ordinary Angels is currently playing in theaters
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