Ordinary Angels

Based on a remarkable true story, ORDINARY ANGELS centers on Sharon Steves (Hilary Swank), a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky who discovers a renewed sense of purpose when she meets Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson), a widower working hard to make ends meet for his two daughters. With his youngest daughter waiting for a liver transplant, Sharon sets her mind to helping the family and will move mountains to do it.

I only watched this because I like Hilary Swank, and she did not disappoint. In fact there was not a single bad actor in the entire film. From the receptionist to the 5 year old girl they all played a blinding part and made you totally absorbed and immersed in the story. A true story too.

It's a feel good story with no romance or magic or miracles, just plain people coming together to help other plain people out. It shows what can be possible when we all get together and really try.

I loved the real footage from the time which underscored how ordinary people with a little faith and a lot of human kindness moved mountains to save one little girl.

Believe in good.

A solid 8 from me.

This resent Amazon release is inspiring reflecting the best in human efforts. Community is essential. Most are unaware or ignorant of how important connection between people truly is. In recent studies many people were surveyed as to what they believe was most important in health. The vast majority responded that diet and exercise were primary reason for a healthy long life. Stats showed although these are important, human socialization is key to this. Not social media, email, Facebook or any other latest craze but physical contact with other people is paramount. It's who we are, a tactile species. Family, friends, co-workers and extended family is what keeps us going. This film typifies that human condition when a woman decided to intercede in a families loss and helps a dying child survive.

I was really looking froward to this movie when I saw the trailer - it didn't disappoint.

Troubled Sharon (Hillary Swank), while struggling with her own alcohol addiction, finds a new calling in her life to help a family: Ed (Alan Ritchson) is a widow with two girls, one of whom has a liver disease and not only are the medical bills up the roof, but the little girl also needs a liver transplant. Sharon is a big-mouthed, loud and cheerful woman, also pushy, and someone who doesn't take no for an answer. Her assertiveness and lack of ability to respect boundaries makes her succeed in all the activities, fundraisers and meetings she organises to help the family financially. It is also something that you kind of question, whether it was actually true: did this family just let her in their home so easily? Accept the money and let her look after the girls too, when she was a complete stranger? .

Hillary Swank and Alan Ritschon have great chemistry, the dialogues are funny, with some scenes pretty hilarious. Some parts are really hard to believe, but overall it is an enjoyable movie.

A heart-warming family entertainment starring Hilary Swank, "Ordinary Angels", based on a true story, is set in rural Louisville, Kentucky in the early 90's and centres around the family of Alan Ritchson's Ed character. Sadly, this is a family struck by tragedy as we quickly learn that after giving birth to two daughters, his wife dies only five years later. Even worse, their youngest daughter, has a life-threatening kidney disorder and because hard-working but hard-up family man Ed can't afford medical insurance, the bills for little Michelle's specialist treatment just keep piling up. His devoted mother pitches in to help but clearly the family is about to go under...

Which is where the town hairdresser, Hilary Swank's Sharon Stevens comes in. She too is a struggling single parent, although her apparent predilection for drink has estranged her from her teenage-musician son. It seems as if her life too is on a downward spiral until she crashes the family funeral and hooks up with Ed and his adorable daughters as a result of which she decides to help them out. This she promptly proceeds to do, beginning with a fund-raising haircut-drive in her shop. But she doesn't stop there and soon afterwards drops full-square into the family's lives and despite his initial resistance, uses her business head and sheer cussedness when it comes to negotiating deals to take charge of Ed and his finances to help them stay afloat.

But little Michelle's condition takes a turn for the worse to the extent that only a kidney transplant can save her life. It all ends up in a madcap race in terrible winter conditions to get the little girl to a hospital six hours away and will require the willing cooperation of a number of "ordinary angels", coralled together by Sharon, to hopefully save the day.

Even if one suspects that some of the action is ramped up to varying degrees for dramatic effect and I'll include in that the suspiciously contrived-looking sub-plot of Sharon's broken relationship with her own boy, you'd have to have a heart as cold as Kentucky snow not to be warmed by this tear-jerker as it reaches its nail-biting climax.

Swank is very good as the boozy Stevens who finds her own self through helping others and Ritchson too shines as the big man pushed to his limits but whose obvious love for his kids pulls him through.

All in all, despite perhaps over-stoking the fire at times, this feel-good movie will put a smile on your face even as you at times will doubtless dab a tear or two away from your eyes.

Ordinary Angels is a pretty safe bet of a film. There's a dying girl. A stubborn and loving father doing his best in the face of adversity. An everyday hero who swoops in Erin Brockovich style and impacts their lives in unimaginable ways.

It makes for very inspiring, heart warming stuff that will be sure to have you reaching for the tissues at some point. It is very much marketed as a tearjerker film and it absolutely delivers on this front.

The filmmaking is probably overly cliche and doesn't really push the boat out too much. It also maybe overstays its welcome slightly with the runtime. These aren't huge issues as the narrative is really the driving force of the film, but these areas could have been tightened up.

The performance from Alan Ritchson is maybe one of the best elements of the film. He really sells it as the hard working father swimming against the tide to keep his family together. Hilary Swank is of course brilliant with a brilliantly written character. Any film with a dying child has the potential to be far too bleak, but her performance and character ensure this is never the case.

So although Ordinary Angels doesn't do anything particularly flash, it tells its story well with a couple of great performances to boot. The emotional core of the story is the real selling point, and this is executed very well making a watch well worth while.