Manna from Heaven

It's not a perfect movie in the conventional sense, but then again so few are. I enjoyed it quite a bit in spite of the implausible plot - after all, what's a feel-good satirical comedy without some hyperbole? The casting and performances were generally delightful. The cinematography was very good in spite of what a few other uninformed reviewers have said. To capture the feel of Buffalo NY - old, out of touch, quietly desperate but always hopeful - the Sisters put together a montage of sights and sounds reminiscent of the social and cultural hodge-podge that is the Buffalo area. It's a state of mind, not a geographical place!

The plot will, in its own way, lead you to the conclusion that the most common people can have redemption with a little effort and divine intervention. This was a great effort from a bunch of girls from Buffalo who have no money to compete against the digitized, schmoltzified crap dealers of Hollywood! A refreshing change of pace -go see it.

We walked out of 'About Schmidt' so depressed and saw a local group promoting 'Manna from Heaven" - what an improvement! Excellent mature actors and actresses in a light, feel-good movie. "Manna", an independent film, may have less polish, but I'm not a movie critic so I don't care. Definitely worth seeing.

Although this was a low budget movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn't great, but it made you, from the beginning, want to sit down and watch until the end. I liked all the characters, especially Jill Eikenberry who played such a subdued character, Cloris Leachman, Wendy Malick and Frank Gorshin, and even though I tend to agree with one poster who said that Shirley Jones was miscast, I think it's because we expect her to be sweet all the time and didn't want her to be "bad". But I loved her turnaround. I even stopped to look at the special features on the DVD, because I wanted to see how the show was made, and I felt a part of the process while watching it. I also learned that one of the elderly couples in the dance scene are the parents of the Burton sisters! Interesting info, I really liked the "feel-good" feelings of this movie.

I went into this film with three years of sobriety, left and headed straight to the bar. The only laughter in the theater were the burton sisters laughing at their own jokes. How funny! I was crying by the end of it, concocting a tale in my head of why I had to leave...a root canal would've been more pleasant. I don't understand how films like this are made. I've got an mfa in writing and these girls graduated from the buffalo community college of inept film-making. Gag me with some more syrup and I'll stick around for your next picture. Why don't you research some talent for your next pic. Wendie Malick saved the film.

Charming, well-written movie with good character development. Off the beaten path, and I agree with many posters here who say that they found themselves thinking about the film long after seeing it.

The usual major-development-per-minute mainstream mindset for people with no attention span is nowhere in evidence here. A very interesting story - It's not built to a formula. I just had no recollection of having seen this all before when I was watching it, and that's so rare now in the movie-as-formula age.

Wonderful performances by some really wonderful actors - Frank Gorshin especially was so good, as were Jill Eikenberry and the hilarious Cloris Leachman.

It's good to see this movie doing well, and being picked up by distributors.