Ordinary Angels Parent Guide

The 1993 death of his wife leaves Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson) overwhelmed with grief and facing the prospect of yet another terrible loss. His five-year-old daughter, Michelle (Emily Mitchell), suffers from biliary atresia, a rare, fatal condition. The only treatment is a liver transplant but wait times are lengthy and medical costs are far beyond Ed’s limited means.

The family’s plight touches the hearts of the surrounding community and has a powerful effect on an unlikely woman. Sharon (Hilary Swank) is a hairdresser who’s in denial about her alcoholism but feels a need to help Michelle and her family. Is it possible for a flawed, ordinary person to deliver a miracle?

Ordinary Angels is not what I expected. Regular readers of this website will be aware of my frustration with the often subpar quality and preachy tone of Christian films. Those are not problems here. In fact, Ordinary Angels isn’t really a “Christian” film. Yes, there are brief discussions about Ed’s shaky faith and people are seen in church but this production doesn’t try to proselytize Christianity. Instead, it’s a movie about simple goodness; about kindness, generosity, and good neighborliness. This is a story about the miracles that can be achieved when people work together for the benefit of those who are weak and vulnerable.

The script has another message, and that’s a searing indictment of the American healthcare system. For unexplained reasons, Ed doesn’t have health insurance and there is no public hospital in the area. Not only is the widower burdened with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical debt for his late wife; he also needs to somehow find hundreds of thousands of dollars to save the life of his child. That Sharon is able to rally the community to help is impressive – that she needs to do so is profoundly depressing.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the script is its courage in exploring the weaknesses of its main characters. It would be easy to make Sharon a stereotypically noble rescuer, but instead we see her addiction, her denial, her sometimes overbearing interference, and the complicated motivations that underlie her compulsion to help. Ed, too, is more than just a passive recipient of aid. He’s grief-stricken, wounded, prickly, hard-working, and determined to be independent in meeting his family’s impossible needs. These characters feel as real as the people upon whom they are based, and that achievement comes down to the acting talents of Hilary Swank and Alan Ritchson.

Parents considering this film for family viewing will be relieved by the paucity of violence, sexual content, and profanity. There is a significant amount of alcohol consumption, including scenes of intoxication, but this is treated as a serious problem and is not glamorized. The story’s inevitable focus on death, illness, and stress render it unsuitable for children, who might find it disturbing, but Ordinary Angels is appropriate for parents and teens to watch together. In fact, this extraordinary tale of compassion and kindness, of the miracles performed by broken souls, might be just what they need to see.