The Cokeville Miracle

This is a film about faith. I imagine many people who watch it may be aware of that beforehand. But if you weren't, and it projects ideals you disagree with, it is best to acknowledge that in a civil, thoughtful, non-attacking way.

Often, if I am critical of material I find offensive (excessive, gratuitous violence and gore, or pornography) I get the injured (and ironically, almost pious) response of "Well, if you don't want to see it, don't watch it." Then they adamantly add "But don't criticize my choices or get in my way." And they cite the First Amendment.

That works in both directions. Realize it. Acknowledge it. Embrace it.

I will start by saying that neither my husband nor I had heard of this event prior to watching the movie, and chose it solely from the small thumbnail on Prime that appeared to have children holding something.

I am still trying to figure out the opening scene of the movie. I plan to rewatch it to see if I missed a key link to the movie. Otherwise I am not sure why it opened the way it did.

Once the movie got going, we both realized the script was terrible. The acting really wasn't as bad as I originally thought. There is only so much an actor can do with bad lines and a choppy narrative. I would have enjoyed learning more about the protagonist's background and motivation. We quickly saw that the movie was faith-based, but the lines questioning God seemed forced into the script and out of place. I really can't fault the actors, and as the movie progressed we did see more emotion evoked.

The first half of the movie unfolds the events of the Bombing. The protagonist delivered lines awkwardly and felt stereotypical. The children and adults seemed way too calm and quiet. I think scenes should have depicted the severity of the situation better than they did and that the script should have also reflected this. Instead some lines were delivered almost comically and we found ourselves chucking at how bad it was.

The second half of the movie on the other hand, surprised me. I was not expecting the director to finally delve into the families lives. Disclaimer! I am Pagan to best describe my faith and my husband is Indigenous. We do not follow or believe Christian teachings but we do believe people should follow what speaks to them. I was not offended by the religious tone of the movie, in fact, that much was apparent within the first 15 minutes. Everything depicted in the second half of the movie spoke to me in my own way. I felt awed by the power of intention that day and I think it's brilliant the survivors chose to focus on a miracle rather than a tragedy.

Again, the questioning of God felt forced into the second half, and I really think it could have been approached in a more fluid way. That said, I think the second half of the movie really saved the first half.

I think the movie is for anyone. I don't think one has to be a believer to enjoy it. People just have to be able to withstand terrible writing, awkward scenes, forced emotion and a lack of background detail to get into it. The spiritual aspect was a non-issue. People criticizing it are biased in their reviews, but so are the people giving it 10 out of 10 because of their religious beliefs. If you just watch the movie for what it is, you will see exactly what I mean.

Like the title said, the acting and directing were less than stellar - though not truly bad. The story makes up for the other shortcomings though. At the point that I thought would be the "miracle" point in the movie, it clearly wasn't nearly over. That's when the real story starts.

I love that TC Christensen chose to make this story into a movie. We need more positive and inspirational movies. Despite the fact that I'm a big fan of theater, love movies, and get frustrated by little inconsistencies or less than accomplished actors, I loved this story enough that I would take it over a very well acted and directed movie with no moral value.

We watched it with three of our sons, ages 9, 13, and 17 and the 13 year old said at the end (in his best disgusted-that-anything-tugged-at-my-emotions voice) "Well THAT made me really happy!"

I found this movie to be a feel good great movie and yes the acting and effects were not the best I still found it engaging and tugged at the heart strings

This movie was not made to win awards or make celebrities, this movie was created to let people know of the miracle that happened on that day 30 years ago and I believe it did just that for me.

There are a few parts that could've been adjusted probably with a larger budget, but if i wanted CG graphics and special effects I would watch something else

The fact that I had never even heard of this real life miraculous story until now makes me rate it even higher.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone interested, the world could use a little more movies like this.

Enjoyed watching it and learning about the story of the school hostage crisis. I have not heard about this incident before. The movie is based on the real accounts of people who went through it, and if they say that they saw angels who helped them survive, I believe them. Those who make fun of the first-hand accounts should keep it to themselves. We had a school hostage crisis in Beslan in 2004 and it resulted in tragedy with lots of deaths. I liked what they said at the end of the movie, that there were lots of lepers in Jesus' day and not all of them got healed, but when one gets healed we should learn to recognize the hand of God. Fine movie, recommend!