Review: 'Ordinary Angels' is a story of grief and grace that feels contrived even though it's based on a true story

A title card in the opening moments of “Ordinary Angels” informs audiences that it’s based on a true story — which turns out to be unnecessary, and beside the point. 

In a movie like this — a four-hankie story of a taciturn widower, his medically imperiled daughter, and the stranger who takes up their cause — you expect it to be a true story, because the narrative is too implausible to be anything else. That still doesn’t make the drama any easier to swallow.

The story starts with that stranger, Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank), a hair stylist in Louisville, Kentucky, whose main extracurricular activity is being a lively drunk at the bar — and then relying on her best friend and business partner, Rose (Tamala Jones), getting her home. When we see this happen for what must be the umpteenth time, judging from Rose’s exasperation, the morning after includes Rose dragging Sharon to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

It’s when Sharon leaves that meeting, and buys some beer, that she sees a newspaper story about the Schmitt family. Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson, the star of “Reacher”) is a roofer dealing with a double tragedy: His wife, Theresa (Amy Acker), recently died, leaving Ed to care for his daughters Ashley (Skywalker Hughes), age 8, and Michelle (Emily Mitchell), who’s 5 and needs a liver transplant. Sharon thinks she can be helpful, so she passes around the tip jar at the hair salon, and gives a few hundred dollars to Ed and his mom, Barbara (Nancy Travis).

But Sharon, a brash woman who never takes “no” for an answer, isn’t done. She applies her business smarts to getting Ed’s finances organized — and working to drive down the hundreds of thousands of debts accrued by Theresa’s long illness. Ed, while appreciative, starts to feel both overwhelmed by Sharon’s bigger-than-life personality and a little angry that this stranger has inserted herself into his life.

Director Jon Gunn cut his teeth in the faith-centered films of the Irwin brothers (his screenwriting credits include “I Still Believe,” the Kurt Warner biopic “American Underdog” and “Jesus Revolution”). This movie isn’t as overtly religious — there are discussions of God and faith, and the Schmitt family minister (Drew Powell) is featured — and more centered on the power of community to come together in a crisis.

The script, credited to Meg Tilly (yes, the actor from “The Big Chill”) and Kelly Fremon Craig (“Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.”), stays largely free of treacly sentimentality for a surprising amount of time. The focus is on the human drama, of Ed struggling to accept help and Sharon realizing that her campaign to assist the Schmitts is deflecting from working on her own problems. 

In the big finale, all the restraint goes out the window. It’s an all-hands-on-deck effort to get Michelle to her transplant during a massive snowstorm — and even though it all happened (as evidenced by the obligatory real footage during the closing credits), it feels phony and contrived. “Ordinary Angels” is proof that events that are real don’t necessarily feel real when put up on screen, and that can make all the difference.

——

‘Ordinary Angels’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, February 23, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG for thematic content, brief bloody images and smoking. Running time: 117 minutes.