"Miracles From Heaven" - God, It's Good!

My Christian movie kryptonite has finally found me. With unhurried precision and thoughtfully crafted scenes and scoring, “Miracles From Heaven” undid all of my reservations about such an overtly titled movie and carried me to the brink of emotional torture and then delivered me to nirvana.

Miracles From Heaven is the first film released by Franklin Entertainment, spearheaded by preacher and former Columbia Pictures executive and author, DeVon Franklin ("The Wait", "Produced by Faith").

The action centers on a “regular” upper middle class Texan family, whose middle daughter, Annabelle, becomes violently sick with an unknown malady. When the mysterious illness is finally revealed as abdominal motility, an incurable illness, Jennifer Garner’s uncompromising portrayal of a worried, but determined mother against medical specialists with no answers is award worthy. Her frantic determination almost overshadows her dried up faith. Child actress Kylie Roger’s liquid portrayal of sickly Annabelle Beam is eerily realistic and almost unbearable to watch. When her faith slips away as her stomach pain increases, even the most cynical viewer will be reduced to a mess of sobs, tears and unanswered accusations against God.

The movie comes razor close to the perfect story and tone for the dramatic Christian movie genre. It is quite possibly the best of the batch of the pastor-church-family structured Christian films. Even the “heaven” scene, beautifully crafted with CGI, is spectacular without being a spectacle, but a “real” heaven that children and adults can visually relate to.

A noteworthy dramatic performance from Eugenia Derbez (Dr. Sam Norko), the Boston specialist who witnesses both Anna’s illness and her miraculous recovery. Queen Latifah (Angela) delivers several brief but nonstop fun scenes.

Considering that the majority of this movie takes place is several fairly monotonous settings - various hospitals, the family ranch, and in a church - the pace is very upbeat and smoothly moves the action along. The protracted, unexplained suffering of young Anna rattles your heart along a disjointed conveyor of emotions from white-hot rage to misery to hoping that she will die just to be free of her suffering.

However, the writing is on the wall is that Christian dramas are going to have to move beyond dramatizing fairly wealthy suburban people who live in large homes, enjoy financial and familial stability, and enjoy 7 course meals prepared by a housewife/mom and provided by a hard-working dad. Representing Christians as stereotypical nuclear families is almost as bad as representing us as pie-in-the-sky fanatics or not representing us at all.

Conveniently having a friendly pastor and caring church family to “balance” the family and offer timely advice would be a welcome addition to almost anyone’s life, but still does not reflect an authentic life where individuals must battle through circumstances largely on their own or with non-traditional family arrangements.

The next revolution for Christian dramas will be to trust that original fictionalized scripts can effectively spread the message of Christianity without using “case studies” as proof.

“Miracles From Heaven” is a must-see movie. Anyone who has cared for a sick friend or relative will relate to the heave-ho of the characters’ physical, emotional, and mental state. Anyone who hasn’t will be totally immersed in both Anna’s suffering and the drama of a mother’s resolute determination to get answers for her child –even from God Almighty.

Ultimately, “Miracles From Heaven” is not really about going to heaven but about bringing heaven down to earth.