Movie Review: 'Ordinary Angels' Starring Hilary Swank

Ordinary Angels (2024)

Directed by Jon Gunn

Written by Meg Tilly, Kelly Fremon Craig

Starring Hilary Swank, Alan Ritchson, Nancy Travis, Amy Acker, Tamala Jones

Release Date February 23rd, 2024

Published February 20th, 2024

Okay, fine, I admit it, I cried... hard. I cried. Watching the movie Ordinary Angels made me weep. I'm in my late 40s and I am far more in touch with my emotions than ever before. So, perhaps, that may explain a little why such a desperately conventional movie touched me so deeply that I had to cry. Ordinary Angels is exactly the kind of movie that is constructed to extract tears from the audience. It's a machine that sucks tears from your face whether you are compelled to give up the tears or not. And yet, my tears came not from the forced nature of the plot about an imperiled, adorable 5 year old girl, but rather from being genuinely overwhelmed by the kindness that people are capable of when properly motivated.

I'm sure that if I did further research I would find that the term 'Based on a True Story' has been abused to the usual degree but regardless, the film does show the most emotional moment of the story as it happened via some pre-credits, archival news footage, and that was more than enough to keep me invested. This is a mostly true story about a family that suffered beyond anything normal. After struggling to get pregnant and struggling to give birth, Theresa Schmitt (Amy Acker), passed away just two years after her second daughter, Michelle, was born. Just three years after this, Michelle herself fell ill and needed a liver transplant to survive.

Drowning in debt and lost in grief, Ed Schmitt struggled to keep his family afloat with the help of his mother, Barbara (Nancy Travis). Then, a strange sort of miracle happened in the form of Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank). A tornado of a personality, Sharon saw the family's story in a newspaper, how their mother had passed away and how Michelle needed a liver transplant, and Sharon threw herself into action. At first, Sharon launched a fundraiser at her hair salon, co-owned with her best friend, played by Tamala Jones. This fundraiser brought in more than $3000 dollars but Sharon sensed that this would not be enough.

Indeed, she was right. The Schmitt family was drowning in more than $400,000 in medical debt from Theresa's illness and death and now the ongoing treatments and medications for Michelle. It was going to take more than a fundraiser to turn this around but Sharon Stevens proves to be more savvy than that. After helping Ed sort out his business, he owns a small roofing company, she sets about finding corporate donors to make bigger donations to help the family. Then she starts in on the hospital, pressuring executives to cut the debt down through the sheer force of her personality and a basket of Blueberry Muffins.

It's all rather heartwarming and pleasant but in the third act, Ordinary Angels kicks into another gear. In the final act, the family gets word that a Liver Donor has been located and the family needs to get from their home in Kentucky to a Children's Hospital in Nebraska before it's too late. Unfortunately, this call comes just as Kentucky is hit by a paralyzing record snowstorm. What happens from here is one of the most inspiring, moving, and remarkable moments of human compassion that I've ever heard about. In need of a plane to make the journey, Sharon moves mountains to a corporate jet to fly in bad weather.

But they also have to get to the airport. While Ed rushes Michelle to the plane, the snow closes the last route out of town. So, Sharon gets a helicopter. If It hadn't really happened you would not believe it was possible. But this story isn't done with the miracles and I will leave the last one uncommented upon. See the movie and experience it for yourself. Ordinary Angels thrives in its final act as part action movie and part very strong melodrama. It's the kind of true story that inspires skepticism until you see the actual news footage from back in 1994 and your heart melts all over again.

This shouldn't work. The direction of Ordinary Angels by Jon Gunn, known for some truly execrable religious dramas over the last decade, is rather rudimentary. That said, he's working with serious pros. First up is star Hilary Swank, a multiple Academy Award winner who can make movies like this work with a will reminiscent of the woman who helped inspire this story. Swank comes on screen in Ordinary Angels and you don't question for a moment that she could inspire Hospitals to forgive debts and corporations to give up private jets and helicopters to provide a miracle to one single family.

On top of Hilary Swank, we have a terrific performance from Jack Reacher star Alan Ritchson. Known for his massive physique and fighting acumen, Ritchson proves to be an oddly inspired choice to play an everyman like Ed. Ritchson, under a bushy mustache feels like a dad who would rip out his own liver if he could and give it to his little girl. He's aided by a script authored by actor Meg Tilly and Are You There God, It's Me Margaret Oscar nominee, Kelly Fremon Craig. The script doesn't avoid schmaltz so much as it makes schmaltz more palatable. They take the strengths of the real life story and touch them up with a bit of Erin Brockovich-style panache.

Hiding deep beneath the surface of Ordinary Angels is an entirely unexplored anger that any family would have to suffer such horrors in the so-called Greatest Country on Earth. The fact that the Schmitt Family could have lost little Michelle simply because they couldn't afford a trip to Nebraska or because there wasn't a hospital willing to take on a case wherein the family had no health insurance, is a damning indictment of the American Medical and Political establishment. The film proves, without trying to, that when there is need, people will step up and pay real money to help. So, why not create a system that we all pay for that would allow for everyone to get the care they need, when they need it, regardless of the ability to pay?

If you will donate to a Cancer Patient GoFundMe or to a family like the Schmitt's in a time of need, then why not build a healthcare system where the donations are required and people like the Schmitt Family don't have to choose between medications or dinner, or between getting a life-saving transplant or keeping their family home. Why not build a healthcare system where everyone has a Sharon Stevens in their corner, a person whose entire job is to make sure that someone who falls ill is immediately taken care of, no questions asked. I know I am into territory beyond the scope of Ordinary Angels here but you tell me where I am wrong about this? Why is this a bad idea? Why is making sure that a family isn't crippled by an illness a bad thing?

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