JENNIFER GARNER IN MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN

Did the new Batman dump Jennifer for going all Faith-Based on him?

Thank God this movie, one of many in the somewhat new, semi-popular low-budget genre (the Media has a blast when they fail to succeed, telling us all about it unlike when Johnny Depp projects bite the financial dust, again and again, unless PIRATES are involved) called "Faith Based," wasn't a sequel to Shel Silverstein's THE GIVING TREE... In that case, the sick little girl wouldn't have had a chance, or rather, a prayer. And whether it was that hollowed old tree itself that caused the Miracle, or "Someone or Something" channelling through it, which is the obvious choice; by the time Jennifer Garner's character, real life country mom Christy Beam, realizes her daughter, suffering and basically dying from a rare stomach disease, realizes Kylie Rogers' Annie is cured, the relatively short movie is over, pretty much... And beforehand we get a Lifestyle Channel style project with a decent performance by Garner, desperately getting her daughter an appointment with a doctor/specialist who turns out to be the friendliest human in the world (heck, the man has an Elmo tie) and yet there's an unfair year-long wait list (the real miracle is seeing him at all).

Garner and Rogers

Scenes where little Anna go through painful treatments, witnessed by her tortured mother, are reminiscent of... don't take this the wrong way... but in THE EXORCIST, Linda Blair had a problem not a doctor in the world could find or cure, and the mystery of what's wrong with Anna, in a dramatic sense and provoking Garner's performance to become more and more intense, is similar to Ellen Burstyn despite the fact the iconic Linda Blair horror film is anything but religious-friendly; although at this point, a horror movie about the Devil being real is also saying there's a God... Which, at this point, is (truly) controversial. So perhaps THE EXORCIST is in fact faith-based... But let's move on...

Kylie Rogers

MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN, one of a few movies seen at the theater with the mother of yours truly... feeling a bit like Norman Bates in the process... wasn't so bad a theatrical experience (for something that would not have been viewed/reviewed otherwise)... The mellow bald FARGO husband as a good-natured small town preacher has nice moments, and helps legitimize a project where some of the cast, like Garner's manly betrothed, are holding back to seem like ultra-real non-actors. And Christianity is not shown as being perfect as a few chattering, gossipy women in a prayer group actually cause Garner's Christy to leave her home church altogether (believing the little girl's negative vibes could have caused the disease to escalate)... It's too bad these horrible gals are what Christians and/or Catholics usually get compared to (overboard fanatics) while Politically Correct Hollywood WOULD NOT be able to show Buddhists or Muslims as being anything less than how Cowboy Movie "Native Americans" have been portrayed since the 1960's: perfectly wise sages showing "the way"...

Lotta Hugging in this flick

But politics and religion aside (two things to never discuss in a bar), MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN is basically a cable movie on the big screen, as already mentioned, and while being based on truth and given a pretty decent comic relief buddy in the usually annoying Queen Latifah, it's no wonder that tree the girl fell into, hit her head at the bottom of, and cured her incurable disease from, wasn't turned into a location for many desperate families with sick children to leap into; perhaps the thing was chopped-down thereafter so not to break the hearts of sick children's parents worldwide...

Kylie Rogers

A reminder of one of the most genuinely heartfelt scenes as a big city dad of a dying little girl, Anna's hospital roommate, was basically insulted when Anna told his daughter something like "God will save me," and then turns up later with a tear-jerking monologue, not so lucky since his daughter died but thankful she got to spend time with a girl who, before the tree experience, had a thing called Faith, a four-letter word in Hollywood but seriously speaking, for those opposed to religion in any form, Faith-Based Films (other than this one in particular) rarely mention Jesus Christ at all, but mostly, simply refer to God, and surprisingly aren't as preachy as particular mainstream ventures like, say, TOMORROWLAND, which center on another religion, this one not given a subliminal genre, or warning an anticipating and ultimately misled audience... Which is a bit unfair, since Atheist and non-religious audiences do indeed HAVE THE RIGHT to know what kind of movie they're walking into and spending cash on, and the Faith-Based moniker gives them caution to stay far away from a vehicle of the Christian nature (plus, the titles and trailers make it pretty obvious). Too bad the rest of the country doesn't have such... knowledge beforehand concerning particular motion pictures with messages that flame-up at the 11th hour. Whew... How's that for a sermon?

RATING: **1/2