God picked ME! HE picked ME! HE likes me! HE really, really, likes me! Yay! Yes, dying child Anna Beam (Kylie Rogers) felt the Lord’s Almighty touch as HE rescued the sub-teen from a lethal intestinal disorder in Miracles from Heaven – a film about faith, familial love, and single savior health care. This is the most tear-inducing bad film in recent memory, and for that I will give it more love than it deserves.
The Beams are a proper white rural Texan God-fearin’ Christian family. Dad (Martin Henderson) is a veterinarian who brings a new dog home to his three girls every day. Mom (Jennifer Garner) raises their animal farm. They’re into being Christian. Like, really into it. Mom asks her kids what they pray about each night, which seems a tad Big Mother-ish, but, hey, intense Christians. Whatchagonndo?
The call for faith is raised early on when the leader of the congregation (John Carroll Lynch) delivers a two-minute sermon about protection in which he pulls out a helmet and an umbrella. Ugh, doncha hate a Prop Pastor? He concludes the salvation comedy routine with “all you really need is faith,” (I paraphrase). Yup, there’s your thesis, go test it. And, wouldn’t you know? Little Anna shortly thereafter develops a life-threatening intestinal condition.
At this point, Miracles from Heaven becomes a film about Mom. It’s weird seeing Jennifer Garner give in to the dark side of preachiness after making fun of it half-a-decade previous in Butter. Here, Jennifer channels some sort of inner Erin Brockovich in which she deliberately runs the emotional gamut on camera to get Anna some badly needed medical help. Miracles from Heaven has a very loose reverence for the medical profession – it can’t be too harsh, as we have to respect the fact that Dad is a vet and mom and daughter often visit the field expert, Dr. Nurko (Eugenio Derbez). However, this film is fairly down on doctors, diagnoses, and cures in general. The irony to all this is I couldn’t help thinking: assuming this story is true –I’m taking the facts on faith, here– you know, if the Beams don’t have health insurance, Anna almost certainly dies … poor people get terrible life-threatening illnesses, too. I’m looking at you, states that rejected Obamacare. For a film that is clearly advocating faith healing as opposed to genuine science, Miracles inadvertently makes a pretty good case for something more down-to-Earth. I mean, look, fellas, it’s fine if God selected you for longer life. Fantastic! Congratulations! But for the millions of us who aren’t likely to be hand-picked by our personal deity to live longer, we could use quality access to doctors and medicine.
Before I get off on a rant, I did want to say how much the film moved me when it wasn’t playing God. A lesser film would have preached instead of personalized; we’ve seen that a lot in the Godsquad genre. Here, we see Anna having issues with ill-fitting clothes (distended stomach) and having a tough day at school when a schoolmate comes over to comfort the alienated girl. You don’t need a preteen dying of intestinal failure to have that be a winning moment in any film. We also see help from a number of unlikely sources, including waitresses and travel agents and receptionists, all of whom in subtle ways elongate
Anna’s life and elevate her quality of life. This is where the movie shines. Yeah, it’s preachy, but Miracles has a very good handle on what separates despair from optimism.
That being said, Miracles from Heaven is essentially a well-meaning ad for Christianity. I hate to run it down, but … at the end of the day, this film is an advocate for solving medical issues through faith. If this is your thing, hey, more power to ya, but … sorry, that’s wrong. Like, anti-vaxxer wrong. While the film rightly combatted the idea that personal suffering is karmic in nature (“your daughter isn’t getting better because of your unresolved sins”), it did nothing to combat the equally ridiculous idea that suffering is tied to faith. Even the bible points out plenty of folks who had no shortage of faith and suffered all the same. This message is flat out irresponsible – are you going to tell people who die of cancer that they did so because they didn’t have faith? Not only is that an ugly falsehood, think of how unfair that message is to people of faith who die from cancer anyway. This happens every.single.day. On top of that, it’s a message that comes from bullies: “you’re _______________ (ill, fat, ugly, obsequious, lethargic, loquacious, unhappy, whatever) because you don’t have faith.” You may as well be saying I’m short because I don’t like the color blue. Why is faith so important that it needs to be wrapped in this dubious package? Why are you not content in knowing that it works for you and not me? That seems like maybe a bit of a psychological issue, pal. If faith is everything you say it is, don’t show me the person who lives because of the strength of faith; show me the contented faithful flock member who dies, because that’s a lot more common – and it’s a lot harder to see how important faith is to those who die painfully despite personal belief. Otherwise, you’re a Miracle cure tonic salesman in the Old West.
♪I was dying
Cuz I couldn’t digest
My intestines
Were chronically messed
Wasn’t long
Before I sought release
But I fell down (fell down)
Got hit on the head
Right on my crown (my crown)
Thought for certain, “I’m dead”
Check it out, thanks to faith
Now I’m good as new
Do you believe in God
Then maybe He’ll heel you
Do you believe in God
If you don’t believe it won’t come true♫
Rated PG, 109 Minutes
D: Patricia Riggen
W: Randy Brown
Genre: Love that Christian God o’ mine!
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Devout Christians opposed to universal health care
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Anti-charlatans
♪ Parody inspired by “Do You Believe in Love?”
