Despite some satisfactory performances, a clear bout of good intentions, and a dollop of Irish charm, Thaddeus O’Sullivan‘s The Miracle Club can’t overcome its rather maudlin dialogue and sporadic meanness to earn a recommendation as the joyous Sunday afternoon viewing it so clearly wants to be.
Set in 1967 in a small Irish village, the film wastes little time in introducing us to its central trio – Lily (Dame Maggie Smith, still as warmly commanding as ever), Eileen (a horribly miscast Kathy Bates, struggling with her Irish accent throughout and being saddled with the most unlikeable of personalities), and Dolly (Agnes O’Casey) – and their hope to win their parish talent contest. Though the film briefly flirts with the possible narrative that Lily, Eileen and Dolly’s performance as a girl group will be their followed arc, it’s their want to visit the French shrine of Lourdes that drives their motivation forward.
According to Catholic doctrine, Lourdes is where a young Bernadette saw a vision of the Virgin Mary, and thousands swarm there every year in the hopes of experiencing their own miracle. Eileen is hoping to visit so she can overcome the lump she has found on her breast, whilst Dolly’s motivation is to help her 7-year-old son, who has remained mute since birth. Lily, though she suffers from having one leg longer than the other, appears mainly there for moral support.
Whilst that story in itself would be enough to suffice its 91 minute running time, O’Sullivan’s dramedy – written by Jimmy Smallhorne, Joshua D. Maurer and Timothy Prager – throws a spanner into the works for Lily and Eileen, specifically, in the arrival of Chrissie (Laura Linney), the daughter of Lily’s oldest friend, whose funeral has just taken place. Chrissie has arrived a few hours too late for the service, and wants little to do with the Ballygar town that shunned her some 40 years prior and drove her to a life in America.
We learn that Eileen and Lily’s ire towards Chrissie stems from her relationship with Lily’s son, Declan, who died at sea when he was 19-years-old and had been in a relationship with the then-17-year-old Chrissie. Eileen and Lily look at Chrissie with disapproving eyes, seemingly unable to view her as anything but the teenager they seemingly blame Declan’s death on. Chrissie has a much different view on just why she left for the United States; “I was banished,” she rightfully retorts.
Though the film hopes a few strokes of broad comedy will soften its edges – I’m not sure just how funny it’s meant to be that Eileen’s husband (a wasted Stephen Rea) is incapable of fending for himself and their six children in her absence – The Miracle Club is primarily a dramatic affair that saves all of its heartache and heavy handedness for the eventual trip to Lourdes, where each character’s guilt over their past actions come to a head.
It’s nothing a logical conversation can’t fix – though we do suffer through more of Eileen’s inability to flex common decency when she has a bit too much to drink and slags off the Lourdes experience as a whole – but there’s too much melodrama injected here that results in anything resembling sanity being run through an operatic lens. That being said, it’s difficult to not appreciate the continued grace of Smith throughout, Linney is served well thanks to her no-nonsense portrayal of her character, and O’Casey proves a real find as the most delicate of the characters, expressing a tenderness that elevates her sap-adjacent dialogue.
Whilst those aforementioned performers are able to find the strength in overcoming much of The Miracle Club‘s cliches, and I don’t doubt there’ll be an older demographic that will respond well to the film’s overall undemanding mentality, O’Sullivan’s effort is unable to lift itself beyond the stereotypical genre tropes that continually threaten to drown itself under with.
TWO STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
The Miracle Club is screening in Australian theatres from August 3rd, 2023.
