The Miracle Club

2023
PG-13
1h 30m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

6.5K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

3,548

Kathy Bates, Laura Linney, Maggie Smith, Agnes O'Casey, and Eric D. Smith in The Miracle Club (2023)

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Period Drama Comedy Drama

There's just one dream for the women of Ballygar to taste freedom: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes.There's just one dream for the women of Ballygar to taste freedom: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes.There's just one dream for the women of Ballygar to taste freedom: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

6.5K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

3,548

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination

Trivia
Producers Joshua D. Maurer and Alixandre Witlin have been trying to make this project for over 18 years. The project was originally sold by Maurer to HBO in 2005 with writer James Smallhorne also attached to direct with a cast that included Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Claire Danes and Brenda Blethyn, but the project did not go forward. Maurer and Witlin never gave up hope or faith in the film and continued year after year after year to find the financing to make this movie. After getting constant rejections, Maurer and Witlin finally found interest from Lionsgate UK and Embankment to finance based on an extensive rewrite that Maurer authored in collaboration with Tim Prager, whom Maurer hired. Maurer and Witlin then used this new draft to get commitments from Smith, Bates and Linney. In addition, Maurer and Witlin then hired director Thaddeus O'Sullivan and UK producer Chris Curling and together they brought on and hired Irish producers ShinAwil and BCP. The film was then further delayed due to COVID three more times.

Goofs
The nun says there have been only twenty-three miracles at Lourdes (up to the time In which the film is set). There actually had been sixty-two. UPDATE: At some time prior to April 2024, the filmmakers must have changed the film to correct this, because the line now states sixty-two.

Quotes
Father Dermot Byrne: You don't come to Lourdes for a miracle ... You come for the strength to go on when there is no miracle.

Connections
References The Song of Bernadette (1943)

Soundtracks
He's So Fine
Words and Music by Ronald Mack (as Ronald L Mack)
Published by Harrisongs Ltd

User reviews62

Review

Featured review

7/10

A small-scale story with lovely acting

Four ladies from Balllygar, Ireland join a travel group going to Lourdes hoping for personal miracles to happen. That's it in a nutshell, but on the other hand it says almost nothing about the substance of this warm and mostly gentle film. An exceptional cast (Maggie Smith, Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Agnes O'Casey and many fine supporting players) leads the way. These four have a complicated mutual history the threads of which intertwine and finally resolve in unlooked-for mutual forgiveness which, if there is one, is the actual miracle. They heal each other, and that's the message.

Kathy Bates and Maggie Smith do their best with strong Irish accents -- though I was left wondering why native Irish actors weren't picked (maybe the producers just wanted the star power). You might expect that Maggie Smith would steal the show, as she can do with almost anything, but she turns out to have the restraint necessary to make this a true ensemble piece. And it's actually Chrissie (Laura Linney's part) who turns out to be the crucial role in the story. Enjoy.