Director: Thaddeus O’Sullivan
Writers: Joshua D. Maurer, Timothy Prager, and Jimmy Smallhorne
Stars: Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, and Maggie Smith
Synopsis: There’s just one dream for the women of Ballygar to taste freedom: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes.
The Miracle Club brings to mind the Aaron Sorkin line, “The things we do to women.” Women are continually exposed to dangerous predicaments from society’s expectations, familial/generational concerns, cultural norms, and even big business. So much so that the State Department considers women and girls highly at-risk populations because of the unconscious bias and perpetration of violence, sexual exploitation, and abuse against them. Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s film subtly touches upon those themes in a heartwarming story about haunting memories and regret.
The Miracle Club is set in 1967 in a working-class community of Dublin, Ireland, and examines the relationship between three generations of women. You have Lily (Maggie Smith), an older adult woman in a singing group trying to win a trip to the sacred town called Lourdes. The French community is known for having a penchant for granting miracles and drawing millions annually. The women have reasons to want to visit. Eileen (Kathy Bates) is worried the pain in her upper chest may be cancer. The youngest of the group, Dolly (Agnes O’Casey), has an adolescent little boy experiencing anxiety about her child, who is nonverbal and lacks the support services to be attuned to her child’s needs.
However, that’s when Chrissie (Laura Linney) comes to town in time for her mother’s funeral. In what she describes as a forty-year banishment, she has made a life for herself in the United States, settling in Boston. Now, back in her hometown, she’s the subject of local gossip, and old wounds are opened about why she left all those years ago. Hardened from the experience, Chrissie still cares for her family as they try to heal together under challenging circumstances.
Working with a script from Joshua Maurer, Timothy Prager, and Jimmy Smallhorne (based on his own short story), O’Sullivan tells a charming story of redemption with some dramatic heft. The script is built for classic, well-timed reveals of the hurt feelings that triangulate between Chrissie, Lily, and Eileen, which are rewarding and simultaneously manage to avoid being manipulative when it comes to dramatic moments. For instance, when O’Casey’s Dolly reveals a memory she has ruminated over, Linney’s Chrissie immediately tells her not to tell Lily or Eileen.
Why is this scene necessary? The point of The Miracle Club is that time heals. In this case, the women who wronged Chrissie have learned from their mistakes as she sits back and watches them use empathy instead of guilt and shame in their treatment of Eileen. Instead of having a Jane Fonda On Golden Pond moment of blaming her family for mistreating her decades ago, Chrissie is mature enough to sit back and not allow the situation to be about her but the next generation.
The Miracle Club overcomes a slow start, but there are patches of the film that have a challenging time working when these phenomenal women are absent from the screen. Most of the humor is derived from men acting like children, and the script resorts to stale humor about man babies being adolescents who cannot whip up a home-cooked meal. (My theory remains that the microwave was the male misguided response to feminism.) I’m certainly not objecting to the intent as a sign of the times that remains today; it’s just the execution of jokes that are tired and even cliched in their own right.
While Kathy Bates has the flashier role—big, bold, and incredibly bitter—and Maggie Smith’s addition brings her usual brand of gravitas (and Oscar-bait cliché to the trailer), it’s Laura Linney’s performance that elevates The Miracle Club into a charming and poignant experience. An award-winning actress, her greatest trait has always been her versatility. She’s the main reason to see this movie, having no trouble adapting to being a stoic listener, providing much-needed comic relief, and delivering the film’s best lines.
Yes, it’s strange for Chrissie to come back to Dublin and completely lack an Irish accent, but there’s an old-fashioned patience to The Miracle Club that leads to a handful of emotional payoffs, which are rewarding. Along with Linney’s performance and the subtle themes of what we do to women, O’Sullivan and Smallhorne’s film isn’t about individual miracles but the one that brings these women back together.
