Miracles From Heaven
Miracles from Heaven is a 2016 American Christian drama film directed by Patricia Riggen and written by Randy Brown. It is based on Miracles from Heaven by Christy Beam, which recounts the true story of her young daughter who had a near-death experience and was later cured of an incurable disease.[4] The film stars Jennifer Garner, Kylie Rogers, Martin Henderson, John Carroll Lynch, Eugenio Derbez, and Queen Latifah. Principal photography began in Atlanta, Georgia, in July 2015. The film was released on March 16, 2016. The movie was financially successful, becoming the 8th highest-grossing Christian film in the United States.[5] Although critical reception was mixed, Garner's performance earned general praise.
Miracles From Heaven
At church, Christy shares the story of how God miraculously healed her daughter with His love. As Christy finishes her speech, one of the congregation protests, stating that he does not believe her. Ben, who has traveled from Boston upon hearing the story about Anna, believes her. He also shares that Haley died peacefully as Anna gave her faith when in the hospital (Anna is saddened by this news because Haley was a dear friend).
The Miracles from Heaven soundtrack features songs from Howie Day, George Harrison, Clayton Anderson, Third Day and others.[16] The southern Christian rock band Third Day made a cameo as the church worship band.[17]
Miracles from Heaven was released on Digital Media on June 21, 2016, and was followed by a DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD release on July 12, 2016, from AFFIRM Films and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.[20][21] The film debuted in second place on the home video sales chart behind The Divergent Series: Allegiant for the week ending on July 17, 2016.[22]
Miracles from Heaven received generally mixed reviews from critics, with Garner's performance receiving praise. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 45%, based on 93 reviews, with an average rating of 5.10/10. The site's consensus reads, "Miracles from Heaven makes the most out of an outstanding performance from Jennifer Garner, but it isn't quite enough to keep this faith-based drama from preaching to the choir."[26] On Metacritic the film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[27] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.[23]
Much of what makes the film work is its emotionally demanding performance from the ever-accessible Jennifer Garner. She gets a big arc to work within, revealing warmth and vulnerability, grit and determination as Christy. She asks all the existential questions any of us would in the midst of such a faith-testing trauma.
Parents need to know that Miracles from Heaven is a drama based on the real-life experiences of a Texas family whose daughter suddenly develops a debilitating, mostly untreatable illness. Her mother (Jennifer Garner), who faces a crisis of faith over the situation, fights fiercely for her daughter's survival; the movie focuses on the ways that such a situation can strain even the strongest family. Ultimately the message is that maintaining your faith that things will work out is both difficult and necessary. There's no drinking or sex and very little language ("oh my God" and "sucks" are about it), but characters argue and get very emotional, and some of the scenes featuring very sick children could be unsettling for younger viewers. One child is also involved in a serious accident late in the film.
Watching a child inch closer to death is definitely a somber experience, but viewers shouldn't get too upset; no matter how bad things seem, the film's title is a major clue to how things will end. You can spot Miracles from Heaven's destination from the onramp. And while the extremely earnest drama is pretty predictable (and underwhelming), it does boast a strong cast -- especially Garner as a mom who nearly breaks under her huge burden and Derbez as the sympathetic, Patch Adams-esque doctor. The film is well-made and certainly inspirational, but in the end it's just not all that entertaining.
At that point, Beam's book, published last April, wasn't even out yet. But author and preacher DeVon Franklin had a tip from a friend who knew Beam had a book deal. Franklin loved the concept, as did his fellow producers T.D. Jakes (also a pastor, who shares Beam's literary agent) and Joe Roth (Jakes' partner in producing the inspirational 2014 film Heaven Is for Real). "Everyone felt this would be a fantastic follow-up," says Franklin, and screenwriter Randy Brown was enlisted to adapt Beam's book.
In the new movie, 12-year-old Kylie Rogers plays Annabel (often called Anna) who suffers from a rare disorder that leaves her unable to digest food. Following a long ordeal that upends the lives of Christy's husband and their two other daughters, Anna suffers a potentially fatal accident, but emerges relatively unscathed, and seemingly cured.
But "I think I had become complacent in raising my children, almost as though (I thought) they were going to receive the ground beneath their feet that heaven had given me through osmosis," she says. Returning home after filming, Garner raised the subject with her kids, "and they said, 'Well, we want to go to church.' "
Garner "was floored, and I immediately looked up the local United Methodist church. We went there next Sunday, and it turned out to be the perfect environment. We've gotten so much from it; it's like a gift Christy gave me."
She and Beam "talked about everything" during filming, Garner says. "No stone was left unturned, from how she kept her nails while she was in the hospital to what her favorite hymns are from church, so I could make a playlist."
Even the love shown by their specialist, Dr. Nurko (Eugenio Derbez), is in itself a small miracle. We come to realize that the larger, more amazing miracles are made up of all these small tokens of love and selflessness.
While the film runs a bit long, and the heartstrings-tugging becomes overwrought, overall, this family melodrama is surprisingly effective, even for those of little faith. There are those who can choose to see it as unassailable evidence that heaven exists, but the film reaches beyond that audience and provides confirmation of the more human miracles that exist in everyday life, if you choose to see them.
Kevin is on the verge of starting a new business, which he and Christy are hoping gets off the ground. Anna has been suffering from an unknown condition over the last few weeks that causes her to vomit constantly and makes her unable to hold down her food.
Christy and Kevin take Anna to see a doctor. After several tests, the doctors conclude that Anna may just be lactose intolerant. Unconvinced, Christy demands the doctors do more tests. Eventually, Christy and Kevin are told that Anna has an intestinal disorder that prevents her from being able to properly digest food, and if it's not treated soon, Anna could die.
At the hospital, Anna befriends a girl named Haley (Hannah Alligood), who suffers from leukemia. She asks Anna about her cross necklace, which Anna says is a reminder for her that Jesus is with her. Haley later tells her dad Ben (Wayne Pere) about Anna assuring her not to be scared in the face of death. Ben speaks to Christy privately and says while he's not upset for Anna trying to be nice to Haley, he doesn't want her to have false hope, which Christy understands.
After a while, the Beams must return to Texas. The girls are outside playing, when Abbie and Anna climb a tall tree. The branch they're sitting on cracks. Abbie tells Anna to walk to the end of the branch. It cracks again, and Anna falls 30 feet down a hole in the tree. Over the next few hours, paramedics and the press show up on the scene. Christy breaks down and starts to pray. The medics pull Anna out of the tree. Christy and Kevin are told that Anna is breathing. At the hospital, the doctor says that other than a mild concussion from the fall, Anna is okay.
The Beams all go back to church. Christy speaks about the miracles she encountered over the whole ordeal, and all the people brought to her during this time. We see several instances of goodwill from people they've met, like the boy at Anna's school, Angela, Nurko, and the receptionist that got Nurko to take care of Anna. After she's done talking, a rotten couple has the nerve to ask if Anna was really sick and if this wasn't all just for publicity. A man stands up and says he believes Christy's story. It's Ben. He says that Haley just recently passed away, which makes Anna cry. However, Ben found peace knowing that after her meeting with Anna, Haley had God in her heart and went peacefully.
Before the credits, we see a video diary from the real Anna Beam and her family. The tree she fell in was knocked down after a storm. She is now a healthy and happy 7th grader that hasn't been sick since.
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A little girl suffers a lot due to an illness; other sick children are shown in the hospital; a stressed-out husband and wife argue a few times; tension between characters; a woman scolds a doctor when he shrugs her off; the death of a child; a child heaves at a toilet, and a dad cleans up the vomit from the floor; people at church wonder if something is wrong in the parents' lives, because they have a sick girl.
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A miracle is defined as something not explicable by natural or scientific laws. How do you explain it? Maybe a miracle is something that is given in special circumstances to inspire faith. We might get it as a signal that we are on the right path, or we may witness a miracle because our faith is diminished as a tool to spurn us onward. Maybe the miracle propels us to whole new level of evangelization. This happened so often in the days that Jesus and his Apostles walked the earth. Even now miracles abound. Do we get to hear about them? If mainstream media gets ahold of them we might, as in the case of this movie. Or maybe a miracle happens to us personally, or to someone we know. The more we can trust that the miracle is truly from God, the more our faith might be moved. This being said, a miracle is not an essential element of the faith to believe or not believe. The miracle is simply a gift. 041b061a72