An unlikely hero

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, February 23rd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: small acts of kindness on the big screen. The new faith-based movie Ordinary Angels tells the true story of one person’s quest to help someone in need. Here’s WORLD movie reviewer Bob Brown to talk about it.

BOB BROWN: Comic book heroes can cloak their super powers beneath a shabby suit. But real-life heroes can’t shed their ordinary frailties by entering a phone booth. When they act courageously, it’s often in spite of their weaknesses. The new film Ordinary Angels is based on the memoir of the same name by Sharon Stevens Evans. It tells the true story of one such hero.

SHARON: Alright, you know the drill. One, two, three, go!

She’s an alcoholic single mother who rallies the people of Louisville, Kentucky to save a dying girl.

As the film opens, we’re introduced to Ed Schmitt, played by Alan Ritchson, star of the Reacher TV series.

THERESA: Doc says we need a name to sign her out and don’t say Ed. We’re not naming our daughter Ed.

ED: I said Ed Jr. [Laughter]

Ed’s wife is dying and without her, he'll be left to raise his two young daughters with help from his mother. But Ed’s problems aren’t over. His three-year-old daughter Michelle has an incurable health condition that will kill her if she doesn’t get a liver transplant.

ED: Bottom line, doc.

DOCTOR: Without a liver, I believe she has a year. Maybe less.

Enter Sharon, played by Hilary Swank. One day while Sharon's buying a six-pack of beer, she reads about the Schmitts in the newspaper. She tells her best friend Rose that she feels inspired to raise money for Michelle’s expensive procedure. Rose warns her that her exuberance is indicative of addiction, but Sharon’s not the type to take no for an answer.

SHARON: Someone’s gotta do something, Rose. Someone’s gotta fight for her, and if it’s me then it’s me. And if that’s addict behavior, then, hey, I guess I am an addict. 

As the Schmitts’ medical bills pile up, Sharon becomes the family’s champion in the community. She also inserts herself into Ed’s and the girls’ lives, leaving viewers to wonder if she’ll be the next Mrs. Schmitt. But her busyness only masks her substance abuse, estrangement from her grown son, and self-loathing.

SHARON: I have this voice in my head. Every day it tells me I’m no good, not worth loving, not worth nothing. And drinking is the only thing that makes the voice go away. 

Swank delivers a convincing performance as a woman riding an emotional roller coaster between bravery and brokenness. But the film’s focus on Sharon nearly pushes Ed’s steadfast devotion to his family into the background. And in what should be the climax, but feels almost like an afterthought, the film’s final ten minutes portray the incredible day dozens of people helped Michelle get to the airport during a blizzard when a donor’s liver finally became available.

SHARON: [Phone rings] I need you to do this as fast as you can. It’s a 2-hour flight, then a 45-minute drive to the hospital. 30 minutes for prep. That gives us a little over 2 hours to get to the airport. We miss that deadline, we lose the liver, we lose Michelle.

The real-life Michelle got the transplant, and lived for 27 more years before dying at the age of 30.

The film also depicts how a crisis can unsettle one’s faith. Ed had stopped going to church, and he can’t tell his daughter Michelle for certain that her mother is in heaven. His mother tells him to hold on.

BARBARA: Son, don’t lose your faith over this…

ED: My faith? You know how many prayer lists Theresa was on? And now they got Michelle on all those same lists. A lot of good faith is doing me.

Ordinary Angels is from the same studio that produced Jesus Revolution, and though it’s a faith-based movie, it offers limited spiritual insight. Jesus’ name is never mentioned, and there’s no acknowledgement of our gravest frailty—our sin. Instead, the film suggests a person’s greatest need, as Sharon says, is “to find meaning and purpose outside ourselves.” There’s a certain element of truth to this statement, but Christians will understand that the meaning and purpose outside ourselves must be rooted in Jesus Christ rather than just doing good deeds.

I’m Bob Brown.

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