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.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Eric D. Smith
- Daniel Hennessy
- (as Eric Smith)
Brenda Fricker
- Maureen
- (voice)
Luke Jackson Smith
- Patrick Dunne
- (as Luke Smith)
Rosemary Henderson
- Nun 1
- (as Rose Henderson)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaProducers 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.
- GoofsThe 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.
- ConnectionsReferences The Song of Bernadette (1943)
Featured review
These four strong ladies have enough emotional baggage to qualify for a trip to Liurdes.
"I'm going to my psychoanalyst one more year, then I'm going to Lourdes." Woody Allen
It's a miracle The Miracle Club made it to mainstream theaters because it's the thinnest of plots-four Irish ladies travel to France's Lourdes, the greatest healing mecca in the world. That they carry with them enough emotional baggage to carry the film is devoutly to be wished and partly realized.
As Chrissie (Laura Linney) returns to her small Irish town outside Dublin in 1967, she is derided by aging Eileen (Kathy Bates), her former bestie, and Lily (Maggie Smith), an elderly matron carrying significant guilt over the death of her son, Chrissie's deceased lover. The drama centers on the way the four ladies have dealt with such divisive actions as his suicide and abortion. We have seen these family hotbeds over the years in Irish and English dramas; The Miracle Club is a bit like most of them.
The driver of this cliched action is the willingness to "bury the hatchet." So pervasive is this urge to bury, opportunities for more interesting interaction are lost, such as that between Lily and the guiding priest, Fr Dermot Byrne (Mark O'Halloran). There is so much more the wise priest could offer about reconciliation and miracles if given the chance. At least, the filmmakers don't make their protagonists cute, as they have Maggie, even when she's also immovable, as in Downton Abbey.
Although director Thaddeus O'Sullivan reveals that in the decades since Chrissie hightailed it out of town, Lourdes has nurtured the visitor trade, the town still has the miracle awe to it despite only 62 miracles since a visitation by The blessed Virgin Mary. From my Catholic youth, I can vouch for the enduring magic of Lourdes and The Virgin Mary.
The Miracle Club can't compete with Indiana Jones or Ethan Hunt, but it can give you a cool, low-key entertainment for the height of summer.
It's a miracle The Miracle Club made it to mainstream theaters because it's the thinnest of plots-four Irish ladies travel to France's Lourdes, the greatest healing mecca in the world. That they carry with them enough emotional baggage to carry the film is devoutly to be wished and partly realized.
As Chrissie (Laura Linney) returns to her small Irish town outside Dublin in 1967, she is derided by aging Eileen (Kathy Bates), her former bestie, and Lily (Maggie Smith), an elderly matron carrying significant guilt over the death of her son, Chrissie's deceased lover. The drama centers on the way the four ladies have dealt with such divisive actions as his suicide and abortion. We have seen these family hotbeds over the years in Irish and English dramas; The Miracle Club is a bit like most of them.
The driver of this cliched action is the willingness to "bury the hatchet." So pervasive is this urge to bury, opportunities for more interesting interaction are lost, such as that between Lily and the guiding priest, Fr Dermot Byrne (Mark O'Halloran). There is so much more the wise priest could offer about reconciliation and miracles if given the chance. At least, the filmmakers don't make their protagonists cute, as they have Maggie, even when she's also immovable, as in Downton Abbey.
Although director Thaddeus O'Sullivan reveals that in the decades since Chrissie hightailed it out of town, Lourdes has nurtured the visitor trade, the town still has the miracle awe to it despite only 62 miracles since a visitation by The blessed Virgin Mary. From my Catholic youth, I can vouch for the enduring magic of Lourdes and The Virgin Mary.
The Miracle Club can't compete with Indiana Jones or Ethan Hunt, but it can give you a cool, low-key entertainment for the height of summer.
helpful•910
- JohnDeSando
- Jul 16, 2023
- How long is The Miracle Club?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- €8,900,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,402,780
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $664,607
- Jul 16, 2023
- Gross worldwide
- $7,257,112
- Runtime1 hour 30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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