Ordinary Angels review – heartwarming rescue from the horrors of America’s healthcare system

IIf you know Alan Ritchson from his turn as Jack Reacher in the Amazon series based on the phenomenally popular Lee Child thrillers, prepare to see a different side of him in this sad, based on a true story . He once again plays a large, silent man (whether, according to Reacher, his hands are still “as big as dinner plates” is not discussed), but here his problems cannot be solved by hitting things. He is mourning the recent death of his wife and drowning in debt from hospital bills. He is devastated by the news that his youngest daughter may have only weeks or months to live, due to a condition related to the one that claimed her mother’s life. Her only hope is an even more expensive treatment.

The revelation that a loud hairdresser with a drinking problem and no sense of personal boundaries (played effectively by Hilary Swank at her most Dolly Parton), has read about his case in the local paper and has decided to make the hapless family her personal recovery The project is not immediately welcomed by the grumpy widower. There’s an interesting moral tension at work here: the self-appointed savior is legitimately helpful and raises thousands of dollars, but she won’t take no for an answer, and the unsolicited intrusion crosses the line at several points. And yet…her interventions, taken as a whole, do far more good than harm.

The real villain of the piece is, of course, the American healthcare system; this is not a story that could take place in Europe. That there is a system where it is even possible to owe more than $400,000 to a hospital is the subject of dystopian nightmares, but this film is not intended to confront the politics surrounding the family’s predicament. Directed by Jon Gunn and written by Meg Tilly and Kelly Fremon Craig, the heartwarming spectacle of a wayward force for good rallying an entire community to save a hapless family makes for better drama than asking why that family needs saving in the first place become. . Taken on its own terms as an old-fashioned character drama and showcase for Ritchson as a dramatic actor (he’s really, really good), it does the job.