‘The Miracle Club’ doesn’t take shortcuts on the path to forgiveness
Laura Linney and Maggie Smith in “The Miracle Club.”
(REVIEW) “The Miracle Club,” about four women from small-town Ireland who make the pilgrimage to Lourdes, is almost a miracle itself.
It’s been in the works for nearly two decades and was filmed in only 21 days. Its screenplay is smart and engaging, exploring Christianity, family, confronting the past and womanhood. It features powerhouse performances from universally beloved actors Laura Linney, Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates — plus a phenomenal supporting cast.
It’s a simple premise, maybe even a familiar one, but as the women begin to confront their difficult past and try to mend their relationships it becomes anything but.
Lourdes is a famous pilgrimage spot particularly for Catholics: It is believed that Mary, mother of Jesus, appeared to the 14-year-old peasant girl Bernadette in 1858. She appeared multiple times, revealed herself eventually as “the Immaculate Conception,” and instructed Bernadette to bathe in and drink from the spring nearby and build a chapel there. The spring is now considered sacred and believed to have healing power.
“You know, you grow up with Lourdes and miracles synonymous,” director Thaddeus O’Sullivan told ReligionUnplugged.com. “We believed that people did experience miracles there. Not many, sometimes; not often, but occasionally. We knew that. It was part of our everyday experience of Catholic culture.”
O’Sullivan’s parents have been to the spring, and he said Tim Prager, a writer of the movie, has been to the spring six times.
Exactly 70 Lourdes healings have been declared miracles by the Catholic Church — the last one, declared in 2018, was a healing that took place in 2008. The process to verify a miracle is a rigorous one, and not all claims have been investigated. Over 7,000 healings have been attributed to Our Lady of Lourdes. Still, both of these numbers seem small in comparison to the estimated 6 million visitors Lourdes receives every year.
People visit for different reasons, of course. Many hope for a miraculous healing, others go to pay penance and reaffirm their faith, and still others go to give thanks for a healing received outside of Lourdes.
“There’s lots of reasons to go, even for nonbelievers,” O’Sullivan said. “When we were researching it, I talked to a lot of nonbelievers who had been there, and they were quite surprised how engaged they became. They said it was quite a spiritual experience for them, being among these people. I think they felt humbled. You can't avoid thinking about your own spirituality when you're among that because it's something palpable.”
“The Miracle Club” is a fictional story, but it’s not far from reality: Each of the women has a different reason to go to Lourdes and a different expectation of what will happen when they get there.
Dolly wants to go so she can take her son, who’s four and hasn’t yet spoken. Lily wants to go in the hopes of healing her short leg and also as a reflection on her faith, mourning the people she’s lost and her life’s regrets.
Eileen has a lump on her breast that’s terrifying her; she hasn’t yet seen a doctor about it, but she hopes it’ll go away with a miracle. Chrissy’s reason is the most complex: she’s in town for the first time in decades because her mother just died. She has strained, almost hostile relationships with Lily and Eileen — her mother’s best friend and her cousin, respectively. The reason for that is unclear from the outset — it’s only that Chrissy left years ago and hasn’t been back since. All three seem uninterested in closure, yet it’s the craving for closure that drives Chrissy to join at the last minute.
“It's some kind of impulse to go to be with the women and see what happens,” O’Sullivan explained.
Lily and Dolly get tickets thanks to a town-wide talent show — mostly a chance for a fun performance from the three women in which Eileen belts a rendition of Barbara Lewis’ “Baby I’m Yours” — and Eileen takes the ticket that once belonged to Chrissy’s mother.
Chrissy’s appearance on the pilgrimage only increases the tension between them, as well as sours the hopeful expectations of the others. It doesn’t mean anyone hopes less for their miracle.
The movie is set up with these two conflicting tensions, those between the characters and those between the characters and God.
This first tension is really a delight to watch because it’s played out by three of the world’s most beloved dramatic actors, who each deliver powerful and nuanced performances
But a miracle is a difficult setup for any movie because it’s difficult to achieve a payoff that’s both realistic and satisfying. If the miracle is granted, does it feel cheap? If it’s not, does it leave the audience unsettled or faithless? All outcomes inevitably say something about the theological — or at least ideological — nature of miracles, and it’s a delicate line to walk.
It’s really the Irish view of Lourdes the movie presents that allows it to be so successful. There’s no pressure on this place to perform confirmed miracles for all of its characters, and it’s no less sacred if it doesn’t. It doesn’t even use the cop out that’s also common in many Christian movies: Maybe the real miracles were the friends we made along the way?
Instead, it proposes something much more complex and meaningful. It’s not wrong to hope for a miracle, and that hope is beautiful on its own, but life isn’t about lunging for quick fixes. It’s more rewarding to pursue forgiveness even in the face of seemingly insurmountable hurt.
That’s what the women do, albeit reluctantly at first: It starts with a candid conversation about abortion, hardship and surprising connection. The next conversations that take place across the final hours of their trip finally unspool the hurt between Chrissy and the other women. Hard-fought forgiveness is won; old friendships are rekindled.
“Then it’s not about anything except for characters in a room,” O’Sullivan said. “It's all about the characters and their history, and they all have a story to tell.”
“The Miracle Club” is now in theaters.
Jillian Cheney is Religion Unplugged’s Senior Culture Correspondent. She writes about film, TV, music, art, books and more. Find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.