Mysteries and miracles

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Friday, July 14th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Mysteries and miracles. World’s arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino has reviews of a show and a movie.

COLLIN GARBARINO: Last Friday, I reviewed Mission: Impossible 7. The movie opened Wednesday and it’s on track to blow up the box office this weekend.

Maybe you’re like me, and you binge watched all the previous installments getting ready for M:I 7. And now that you’ve seen Tom Cruise’s latest over-the-top adventure, you’re still craving more super-spy action. If that’s the case, you could check out the new espionage thriller on Disney+ in which things—and people—aren’t what they seem.

PRESCOD: Imagine a world where information can’t be trusted. Not very hard, is it?

The show is Marvel’s Secret Invasion. Samuel L. Jackson returns to the role of aging spymaster Nick Fury, and his enemy can assume any face he wants. Earth is threatened by shapeshifting aliens called Skrulls. The Skrull homeworld was destroyed in a galactic war, and the alien remnant became wandering refugees. Many found their way to Earth where they hide amongst us.

PRESCOD: Society starts to fray. All we can turn to are the people we care about.

After 30 years of waiting to find a new homeworld, some of the Skrulls decide they’d rather just conquer Earth and exterminate its human population.

Nick Fury uncovers an alien conspiracy that’s infiltrated the highest levels of world leadership. Following the time-honored spy-genre trope, Fury can’t trust his own government, so he’ll have to save the world himself.

NICK FURY: I’m Nick Fury. Even when I’m out. I’m in.

Fear not, you don’t need to catch up on Marvel lore to understand what’s going on. The series is fairly self-contained and doesn’t presume much background knowledge.

Secret Invasion succeeds as a sci-fi spy thriller. There’s a tension from suspecting every interaction could be a trap. It also helps that much of the series is set in Russia and London, two classic spy-movie locations. But despite having characters who can assume any form they want, the plot is pretty straightforward.

Jackson is in his mid-70s, and his Nick Fury has obviously seen better days. Instead of working out a plan and honing his spycraft, Fury spends much of his time processing his feelings and bickering with his friends.

We also get scenes in which Fury vents frustration over racial injustice. He recalls having lived through segregation, and talks about what it takes for a black man to get ahead.

NICK FURY: Men who look like us don’t get promoted because of who our daddies know. Every ounce of power we wrestle from the vice grip from the mediocre Alexander Pierces who run this world was earned in blood.

These ruminations on the black experience feel more natural than the forced commentary on race relations in Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

It’s a little more personal this time and a little less preachy. It complements the show’s premise about alien outsiders arguing about the best way to become insiders. Do you keep your head down and blend in? Or do you assert your rights through violence?

Secret Invasion is one of Marvel’s better TV shows, but as with the Star Wars spy series Andor, the story would be better as a standalone series rather than being shoehorned into a pre-branded universe.

But maybe you’re not interested in spies at all. This week’s counterprogramming at the theater is The Miracle Club. With its mid-century Irish setting and Academy Award–winning ensemble cast, the movie should pique the interest of fans of period dramas.

MUSIC: [Trio singing “He’s So Fine”]

In a working-class community outside Dublin, three women hope to win a talent show to get an all-expense trip to Lourdes in France where they hope to receive miracles at its famous Catholic shrine.

The women all struggle with private pain, but they enjoy a close intergenerational friendship. Maggie Smith plays Lily, who grieves over a son she lost 40 years earlier. Kathy Bates plays Eileen, who fears she might have cancer. And Agnes O’Casey plays a young mother named Dolly, who worries about her school-age son who refuses to talk.

Before they leave for Lourdes, the prodigal Chrissie, played by Laura Linney, returns from a 40-year exile in America.

CHRISSIE: I wouldn’t have recognized you.

LILY: Forty years will do that to you.

The movie explores plenty of Christian themes. The characters carry brokenness and guilt, and there’s an acknowledgement that people lack the merit to receive divine reward. We see crises of faith and characters who don’t know whether to hope. And there’s some gentle mocking of the miracle-industrial-complex.

EILEEN: They’re not stepping in the same water as those, are they?

LILY: Oh, of course they are.

EILEEN: That’s a bit much. They’ll catch an infections.

LILY: Oh no, you won’t catch a thing. This is Lourdes. It’s another miracle.

Unless you’re a die-hard Maggie Smith fan, you might want to give The Miracle Club a pass. The plot gets a bit heavy-handed. Abortion comes up, but—so as not to offend either political side—it’s treated with an ambiguity that almost seems flippant. The three friends are sympathetic characters, but their husbands are bullies. The ultimate miracle, of course, is these men learn to appreciate their wives after having to cook and clean for themselves.

But on the plus side, the film suggests forgiveness is a greater miracle than any benefit experienced in the body. That’s not a bad reminder. Maybe I should forgive its faults.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

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